Supply Chain Sustainability and Circularity: A Systems Perspective

Allen, Samuel

Etd

Supply Chain Sustainability and Circularity: A Systems Perspective

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This dissertation is a study of supply chain sustainability and circularity from a systems perspective. The research involved developing and analyzing two system dynamics simulation models and then synthesizing their multi-scale insights. The first model presents a long-term perspective. The second model has a short-term perspective. The synthesis is presented as a descriptive theory and is developed using Forrester's dyadic theory of management responsibility. These three lenses provide a comprehensive understanding of the nexus of Sustainable Supply Chain Management and Circular Economy (SSCM-CE), exploring the design of operations and strategy to reduce a supply chain’s harms and enhance its benefits. The models are based on knowledge from studies across industries, and on the specific details of a case study of food waste reduction at a UK-based grocery retailer. The long-term simulation model maps the complex interplay between supply chain collaboration, stakeholder pressure, and harm reduction. By synthesizing strategies from empirical SSCM-CE studies, the model makes it possible to simulate the joint implications of causal structure and strategies for system behavior. Model analysis underscores the vital role of stakeholder policies. In the challenging odyssey of SSCM-CE, continual adaptation and learning across companies, partners, and stakeholders are crucial. Rigorously-designed strategies and stakeholder integrity drive transformative evolutionary shifts toward collective responsibility and genuine harm reduction. The short-term simulation model focuses on perishable food waste reduction and grocery retailers' supply chain responsibilities. Integrating supply chain dynamics and SSCM-CE research provides insights into policy design and short-term planning. A hybrid simulation paradigm clarifies complexity, aiding intentional policy design for sustainable operations capable of resolving trade-offs. Intentionally-designed inventory control policies and integration of non-profit organizations are key to realizing grocery retailers’ potential for supply chain harm reduction. SSCM-CE’s complex landscape precludes simple voyages. Redesign of supply chains to be safely piloted across this landscape is facilitated by problem-oriented systems thinking, simulation modeling and multi-stakeholder supply chain initiatives which, together, provide a strategic context that supports inter-organizational operational innovation. This tentative theory is proposed as a guide for organizations and their managers to better understand SSCM-CE and enhance their individual and collective responsibility. This dissertation describes companies as involved in different scales of multi-stakeholder SSCM-CE initiatives. In the short-term, supply chain companies and even non-profits are crucial partners in advancing sustainability and circularity. In the long-term, the path taken depends largely on the integrity of these and many other stakeholders, and on their integration by company managers. By synthesizing diverse kinds of knowledge about SSCM-CE problems into an experimental policy analysis framework, a proactive manager can identify the potential trade-offs and synergies among policies and work with others in the company to develop them into packages of operational and strategic policies.

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