Logistics Optimization and Sustainable Operations Management

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue focuses on logistics optimization and sustainable operations management (OM), a sub-field of OM that poses novel research challenges.

Logistics has become an integral part of both the manufacturing and service industries. Logistics optimization has expanded to address strategic, tactical, operational, and collaborative decision making (Powers et al., 1989). Logistics activities including transportation, inventory, packaging, and distribution (Bartolacci et al., 2012), consume a large amount of energy and produce waste emissions. Due to the complexity of decision making in supply chains, there is an increasing need for optimization modeling methodologies that can identify and implement strategies by designing efficient supply chain networks. Logistics optimization spans multiple technical fields and can be known by different monikers such as OR, applied artificial intelligence, and business analytics (Sashihara 2011). Logistics optimization should cope with the sustainable goals of the economy, society, and the environment (Brandenburg et al., 2014; Jayarathna et al., 2021).

Sustainable OM is a part of the sustainable operations concept (Jaehn, 2016), which is defined as the pursuit of social, economic and environmental objectives – the triple bottom line (TBL) – within a specific firm’s operations and their operational links that include the supply chain and communities (Walker et al., 2014). Sustainable OM should help companies to become agile, adaptive, and aligned in balancing the people and the planet with profits (Kleindorfer, 2005). OM aspects that can be considered from a sustainability perspective include product design and eco-design, the adoption of environmental and social standards, process improvement and lean operations, purchasing, supply chain management (SCM), logistics including recycling and closed-loop systems, performance measurement, and risk management (Walker et al., 2014).

This Special Issue brings together the latest research in logistics optimization and sustainable OM from the international academic community. Scholars and researchers in related fields are asked to submit original research papers exploring key issues and proposing innovative solutions in logistics optimization and sustainable OM.

The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following research directions:

• Sustainable logistics.
• Reverse logistics.
• Humanitarian logistics.
• Sustainable transportation systems: routing, location, etc.
• Sustainable supply chain management.
• Digitalization and sustainable operations.
• Social responsibility in supply chain management.
• Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) in logistics and supply chain.
• Green innovation in supply chains.
• Closed-loop supply chains: management of consumer returns, remanufacturing, recycling.
• Sustainable manufacturing.
• Sustainable packaging problems.
• Energy-efficient warehouse management.
• Sustainable procurement practices.
• Circular economy.
• Low-carbon economy: carbon emission regulation, energy-efficient or clean production technologies, renewable energy strategies.
• Environmental management and performance.
• Sustainability related risk management.
• Green finance and enterprise sustainable development.
• New techniques for logistics optimization and sustainable OM: artificial intelligence, blockchain, etc.

References:

1. Bartolacci M. R., LeBlanc L. J., Kayikci Y., Grossman T. A. Optimization modeling for logistics: Options and implementations. Journal of Business Logistics. 2012, 33(2): 118-127.
2. Brandenburg M., Govindan K., Sarkis J., Seuring S. Quantitative models for sustainable supply chain management: Developments and directions. European Journal of Operational Research. 2014, 233(2): 299-312.
3. Jaehn F. Sustainable operations. European Journal of Operational Research. 2016, 253(2): 243-264.
4. Jayarathna C. P., Agdas D., Dawes L., Yigitcanlar T. Multi-objective optimization for sustainable supply chain and logistics: A review. Sustainability. 2021, 13(24): 13617
5. Kleindorfer P. R.; Singhal K., Van Wassenhove, L. N. Sustainable operations management. Production and Operations Management. 2005, 14(4): 482-492.
6. Powers R. F. Optimization models for logistics decision. Journal of Business Logistics. 1989, 10(1): 106-121.
7. Sashihara, S. 2011. The optimization edge: reinventing decision making to maximize all your company’s assets. New York: McGraw Hill.
8. Walker H., Klassen R., Sarkis J., et al. Sustainable operations management: recent trends and future directions. International Journal of Operations & Production Management. 2014, 34(5): 554-564.

Prof. Dr. Guanghui Zhou
Dr. Dongning Liu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• logistics optimization with the sustainable goals
• sustainable OM
• circular economy and reverse logistics
• humanitarian logistics
• sustainable transportation system
• closed-loop supply chains management
• social responsibility in supply chain
• sustainable manufacturing
• green innovation
• environmental management and performance