Future planning for benchmarking and ranking sustainable suppliers using goal programming and robust double frontiers DEA

•For the first time, we introduce new benchmarks beyond the goals.•We warn decision makers to take preventive actions for inefficient suppliers.•A case study is given to show applicability of the proposed model.

Decision-making for selecting sustainable suppliers has become an intricate duty. To rank sustainable suppliers and select benchmarks this paper proposes an efficiency improvement plan. Two levels of improvement plans including goals and benchmarks are presented for the suppliers. To this end, the first-level goals are obtained using goal programming (GP) and data envelopment analysis (DEA). Since inputs and outputs of the first-level goals might be imprecise, robust Charnes-Cooper-Rhodes (CCR) model is run. As a result, the benchmarks of the second-level are obtained. Then, a robust CCR inefficiency model is applied for ranking the suppliers. In fact, such a ranking capability is made by creating double-frontiers including CCR efficiency and inefficiency frontiers. Accordingly, the suppliers are ranked using the first-level goals. In the new ranking, uncertainty of the goals is considered by running robust optimization technique. The proposed approach provides technical and planning capabilities which are demonstrated by a case study.