Danijela Tuljak-Suban

By Patricija Bajec and Danijela Tuljak-Suban

Green environmental performance increases the competitiveness of the supply chain. However, the greening of the supply chain depends on the manufacturer who drives the green initiative, as well as on all the members of the supply chain who take part in the process. The manufacturer’s attention has been largely focused on the environmental performance of the supplier and retailer, whereas logistics service providers have been somehow neglected. It is, in fact, the case is that logistics service providers have begun to play a critical role in supply chain management and could therefore significantly improve environmental sustainability. They have already undertaken a green initiative that unfortunately has rarely, if at all, been required by the manufacturer. The lack of requirements for logistics providers hinders the progress of a green initiative. To take a step forward towards green supply chain management, this chapter aims to introduce all the necessary criteria for the selection of a logistics service provider (LP), with an emphasis on environmental criteria. The environmental selection criteria, with all related subcriteria, were achieved on the basis of a systematic literature review. It has been found that buyers of logistics services still strive to minimize costs, expect quality logistics services, a well-positioned LP, all the while overlooking environmental issues. The most frequently applied environmental selection criteria are value-added reverse logistics services, followed by environmental expenditures, pollutants released, energy consumption, clean materials and energy use. The findings presented here are useful particularly for researchers, as issues regarding sustainable LP selection and its limitations are highlighted, related to selection criteria identification. These findings may be of less use to managers. However, future phases of this study, richer for the evaluation of logistics experts, will be much more applicable to buyers and providers of logistics services.

Part of the book: Sustainable Supply Chain Management

By Danijela Tuljak-Suban

The sustainability of food supply chain management in a global market after the Economic Crisis is increasingly relevant; the economic and environmental pillars have been closely studied and examined, while the social pillar is considered only marginally and never independently. We propose a literature review focused on 28 articles regarding sustainability in the food supply chain. The proposed review (a) detects methods that could be used to enhance sustainability, (b) highlights the most used methods and their shortcomings, and with regard to social sustainability (c) highlights the fact that most of the studies were found to be based on empirical approach. Moreover, we propose the use of a fuzzy framework to evaluate sustainability (in particular, the social aspect), since fuzzy variables could better explain phenomena and situations generally described verbally.

Part of the book: Sustainable Supply Chain Management

By Patricija Bajec and Danijela Tuljak-Suban

The aim of the paper is to propose a framework for improving the process of choosing an appropriate multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method in the selection of a third-party logistics provider (3PLP). A systematic combining process was used, along with two literature reviews, one empirical survey and a case study. A four-step framework was proposed, starting with identifying common criteria that are harmonised to the 3PLP selection process, followed by analysing all aspects of the 3PLP selection problem and the selected MCDM methods in view of common criteria, finishing with a decision tree, divided into seven branches that orient the decision-maker towards his decisions. The paper also contributes to the theory by identifying and evaluating criteria that characterise 3PLP decision-making and by suggesting a suitable order of criteria. A numerical example was implemented to evaluate a proposed framework.

Part of the book: Application of Decision Science in Business and Management