The Circular Economy (CE) is a backbone for sustainable economic growth and development. Companies now operate in a market that is more complicated, unpredictable, and fast-paced than ever before. The material closed-loop fluxes essential to a fully functional CE are the source of these difficulties. Addressing CE operational difficulties requires incorporating flexibility capabilities into sustainable supply networks. The development of this operational competence must not diminish performance, raise expenses, or lower product quality. Designers of supply chains now understand they must prioritize Sustainable Supply Chain Flexibility (SSCF) initiatives if they want to achieve CE-targeted performance. Material and energy recycling, a closed-loop supply chain, and minimal environmental impact all contribute to a product's performance aimed at achieving CE status. In this study, Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) technique has been used to integrate the most influencing factors of sustainable supply chain flexibility and circular economy.
TopIntroduction
A new policy and commercial approach known as the “Circular Economy” (CE). Sustainability in production, distribution, and consumption is a primary goal of CE. (Cooper, 1999), (Sarkis and Zhu, 2018). CE has garnered a lot of interest because of the fact that it has the ability to minimize the effect that humans have on the environment while also improving economic development (Zhu, Geng, & Lai, 2010), (Geng et al., 2013) (Geng, Sarkis, & Bleischwitz, 2019), (Geng, Sarkis, & Ulgiati, 2016). One of the most important parts of CE's mission to promote sustainable supply chain management is supply chain management that takes the environment into account (Pan et al. 2015; Genovese et al. 2017).
Companies and their supply chains must adapt to a more volatile, unpredictable, and complicated market because of CE. Changes in the competitive landscape could be caused by a number of things, such as changing customer demand for greener products, stricter environmental rules, or the entry of more green competitors. The term “Supply Chain Flexibility” (SCF) refers to a supply chain's capacity to respond to market dynamics (such as demand and opportunity) with little time, cost, or performance consequences (Blome, Schoenherr, & Eckstein 2014) (Agrawal & Mukti, 2020). While working toward CE objectives, SSCF aids the focal organisation in a supply chain in adapting to changing greening standards and environmental legislation (Swafford, Ghosh, & Murthy, 2006; Bai and Sarkis, 2019). These businesses and their supplier networks aim to strike a balance between rapid response and environmental responsibility.
SSCF initiatives, which are especially useful in light of volatile business environments and changing market dynamics, can be used to protect focal companies from environmental risks such as those related to energy resource requirements, waste management, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This can be accomplished by protecting focal companies from environmental risks such as those related to energy resource requirements. These changes might make it easier to add a CE framework to a supply chain that is more environmentally friendly.
Due to the lack of certainty that the advantages of flexibility would outweigh the costs, many leading organisations are hesitant to undertake SSCF initiatives (Montabon, Sroufe, & Narasimhan 2007). So, if you want to combine SSCF and CE goals and targets well, you need to look at how they are related.