Improving sustainable supply chain management using a novel hierarchical grey-DEMATEL approach

Sustainable supply chain management has been studied in the past. However, the previous studies lack proper justification for a multi-criteria decision-making structure of the hierarchical interrelationships in incomplete information. To fill this gap, this study proposes a hierarchical grey decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory method to identify and analyze criteria and alternatives in incomplete information. Traditionally, the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory method does not address a hierarchical structure and involves incomplete information within its analytical method. However, the grey theory compensates for incomplete information. This study's purpose is to apply the proposed hierarchical structure to identify aspects of and criteria for supplier prioritization. This includes an original set of criteria for structuring the following: aspects as a sustainable plan, communities for sustainability, sustainable operational process control and sustainable certification and growth. The results present the recycle/reuse/reduce option as a tool to increase the material savings percentage, which is the top criterion for supplier selection. This study concluded that the hierarchical analytical method provides a strong basis for future academic and practitioner research.