Performance evaluation and a flow allocation decision model for a sustainable supply chain of an apparel industry

There is a growing concern that business enterprises and their supply chains focus primarily on economic activities and ignore their impact on the environment and society. This paper aims to help decision makers, managers, and practitioners to achieve economic growth, societal development, and environmental protection by developing sustainable supply chain performance measures and proposes a partner selection and flow allocation decision-making model. Survey data from 278 business organizations from the Indian apparel industry supply chain network were used, and an integrated method of structural equation modeling, fuzzy analytical hierarchy process, and fuzzy multi-objective linear programming was applied to the proposed model. The results of the structural equation modeling analysis indicate that the survey respondents considered sustainable production performance to be of prime importance, which thus indicates its significance in developing a sustainable supply chain for the apparel industry. To illustrate the use of the proposed model for partner selection and flow allocation decision making, real-time data from an apparel manufacturer are presented. Optimal results were obtained for two strategies—sustainability and cost saving—to show a cost–benefit trade-off when developing a sustainable supply chain. Using comparative performance, a decision maker can choose an appropriate strategy based on cost–benefit analysis of the presented trade-offs.