Sustainable Supply Chain Innovations and Circular Economy Challenges: A Multi-Perspective Analysis of Cost, Barriers, and Logistics Optimization

Sustainable supply chain intends to reduce social and environmental effects while preserving economic viability at the same time. Throughout the production and distribution process, it incorporates environmental friendly practices like cutting carbon emissions, saving resources, and limiting waste. The purpose of this research is three-folded; first, to carry out a systematic literature review at the crossroad between SCM, sustainability and innovation by employing Marrying content analysis and explore the connections between these three streams of research and highlight new areas for future research. Second, to identify possible cost competitive alternatives to traditional gasoline light commercial vehicle (LCV) segment of Bofrost that are more sustainable in daily operations (more cost competitive with decreased social and environmental effects) while implementing the Total Cost of Ownership technique. Third, to identify the circular economy barriers and rank them through expert opinion by implementing FUCOM analysis in case of frozen food industry. Additionally, this study also presents a logistics center identification model by implementing the Fuzzy-MCDM technique to design a resilient logistics network with enhanced transport efficiency and customer satisfaction. Outcome from the first study discuss sustainability from the innovation perspective. We discussed three categories of sustainability i.e., economic, social, and environmental with the primary innovation-related issues that emerged from our research, with a distinction made between supply chain innovation that is a) organizational, b) product, c) process, d) strategic, and e) technology. Second study reveals that a battery electric powertrain layout may currently be suggested to outperform a diesel, biodiesel, and fuel cell electric powertrain layout. This conclusion is primarily due to higher current cost factors for fuel cell system production, hydrogen storage system production, and hydrogen refueling. The critical part in decision making is the inclusion of external costs for proposed propulsion systems that makes BEVs a preferred choice in our case. For third study, we found that the most prominent CE barriers in our case includes the absence of CE infrastructure, high setup costs of CE adoption, the lack of sufficient CE incentives and lack of public awareness about CE. We also presented a mathematical model to assist decision-makers in choosing the optimal LC location among a range of possible sites subjected to certain criteria. Finally practical implications and future research avenues are discussed.