Integrated method combining analytical and mathematical models for the evaluation and optimization of sustainable supply chains: A Brazilian case study

Studies on the measurement and evaluation of sustainability are fundamental requirements in sustainable supply chain management. Herein, the development of an integrated method for evaluating the sustainability of an oil and gas supply chain is proposed. A method defined as sustainability evaluation and optimization is a combination of analytical and mathematical models. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluations (PROMETHEE) are implemented in multi-attribute models. Preemptive goal programming is used in the multi-objective method. Experiments are conducted with the data from a Brazilian oil and gas company. The results demonstrate sustainability performance from 2009 to 2017, with its best performance in 2011. Based on the AHP, experts determined that the environmental parameters are more relevant than the social aspects. Thus, the optimization proposed using the mathematical model to direct spending to the more important parameters for achieving sustainability. Among the environmental factors, the optimization directs expenses toward production/operation and recovery of degraded areas, whereas among the social parameters, it directs expenses toward external social projects. This study contributes to a hybrid model for decision-making that can be replicated in other companies. As a suggestion, this can be combined with other techniques of analytical and mathematical models. A stochastic simulation can also be used to analyze the performance of organizations.