Special Issue "Sustainable Logistics and Services"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 September 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Andres Muñoz-Villamizar
E-Mail Website
Chief Guest Editor
1. International School of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Universidad de La Sabana, 250001 Chia, Colombia
2. Center for Transportation & Logistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
Interests: operations management; logistics; sustainability; data analytics; high-resolution modeling
Prof. Dr. Jairo Montoya-Torres
E-Mail Website
Assistant Guest Editor
School of Engineering, Universidad de La Sabana, Chia 250001, Colombia
Interests: applied mathematics; manufacturing engineering; industrial engineering; supply chain management; sustainable logistics
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Christopher Mejía Argueta
E-Mail Website
Assistant Guest Editor
Center for Transportation & Logistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
Interests: food supply chain; operations management; logistics strategies; socioeconomic; food waste and food malnutrition; nanostore supply chain

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Supply chain operations and logistics services, including procurement, manufacturing, transportation, packing, and handling, are critical to the sustainable development of metropolitan areas. Practitioners and researchers have become more aware of the impact of logistics operations in the triple bottom-line (i.e., profits, planet, and people). This triple bottom-line (TBL) perspective is a progressively important requirement for the design and development of today’s urban logistics due to growing urbanization rates, dynamic purchasing patterns, increasing consumer preference for environmentally friendly and healthy products, implementation of cleaner technologies, stricter legislation for last-mile distribution, evolution of technology, and development of zero-waste and social-inclusive strategies, among other trends.

Due to the growing complexity and heterogeneity of logistics operations and services, the development and/or implementation of new methodologies or techniques to solve real problems has become an important challenge in operations management, engineering, economics, and other fields related to supply chain management. The rising fragmentation of retail and e-tail channels, the sophistication of technology, the needs to deliver orders accurately and on time, and a growing awareness of building long-term sustainable operations emphasizing social and environmental goals have created a promising but challenging set of problems to be solved by academics, policymakers, and practitioners. 

Therefore, the aim of this Special Issue is to address the use of new methodologies and innovative approaches for sustainability in logistics operations and services from the TBL perspective by considering the changing nature of supply chain stakeholders, logistics operations, product and consumer features, and city characteristics, among other aspects—that is, a more flexible design or more efficient urban supply chains using robust, strong academic frameworks and solution approaches.

Dr. Andres Muñoz-Villamizar
Prof. Dr. Jairo Montoya-Torres
Dr. Christopher Mejía Argueta
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainability
  • supply chain
  • operations management
  • social impact
  • transportation
  • manufacturing
  • procurement
  • closed-loop supply chains
  • circular economy models

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Article
Multi-Objective Fuzzy Tourist Trip Design Problem with Heterogeneous Preferences and Sustainable Itineraries
Sustainability 2021, 13(17), 9771; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179771 (registering DOI) - 31 Aug 2021
Abstract
Tourism has direct and indirect implications for CO2 emissions. Therefore, it is necessary to develop tourism management based on sustainable tourism, mainly in the transport process. Tourist itinerary planning is a complex process that plays a crucial role in tourist management. This [...] Read more.
Tourism has direct and indirect implications for CO2 emissions. Therefore, it is necessary to develop tourism management based on sustainable tourism, mainly in the transport process. Tourist itinerary planning is a complex process that plays a crucial role in tourist management. This type of problem, called the tourist trip design problem, aims to build personalised itineraries. However, planning tends to be biased towards group travel with heterogeneous preferences. Additionally, much of the information needed for planning is vague and imprecise. In this paper, a new model for tourist route planning is developed to minimise CO2 emissions from transportation and generate an equitable profit for tourists. In addition, the model also plans group routes with heterogeneous preferences, selects transport modes, and addresses uncertainty from fuzzy optimisation. A set of numerical tests was carried out with theoretical and real-world instances. The experimentation develops different scenarios to compare the results obtained by the model and analyse the relationship between the objectives. The results demonstrate the influence of the objectives on the solutions, the direct and inverse relationships between objectives, and the fuzzy nature of the problem. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Logistics and Services)
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Article
Data-Driven Methodology to Support Long-Lasting Logistics and Decision Making for Urban Last-Mile Operations
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 6230; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116230 - 01 Jun 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 803
Abstract
Last-mile operations in forward and reverse logistics are responsible for a large part of the costs, emissions, and times in supply chains. These operations have increased due to the growth of electronic commerce and direct-to-consumer strategies. We propose a novel data- and model-driven [...] Read more.
Last-mile operations in forward and reverse logistics are responsible for a large part of the costs, emissions, and times in supply chains. These operations have increased due to the growth of electronic commerce and direct-to-consumer strategies. We propose a novel data- and model-driven framework to support decision making for urban distribution. The methodology is composed of diverse, hybrid, and complementary techniques integrated by a decision support system. This approach focuses on key elements of megacities such as socio-demographic diversity, portfolio mix, logistics fragmentation, high congestion factors, and dense commercial areas. The methodological framework will allow decision makers to create early warning systems and, with the implementation of optimization, machine learning, and simulation models together, make the best utilization of resources. The advantages of the system include flexibility in decision making, social welfare, increased productivity, and reductions in cost and environmental impacts. A real-world illustrative example is presented under conditions in one of the most congested cities: the megacity of Bogota, Colombia. Data come from a retail organization operating in the city. A network of stakeholders is analyzed to understand the complex urban distribution. The execution of the methodology was capable of solving a complex problem reducing the number of vehicles utilized, increasing the resource capacity utilization, and reducing the cost of operations of the fleet, meeting all constraints. These constraints included the window of operations and accomplishing the total number of deliveries. Furthermore, the methodology could accomplish the learning function using deep reinforcement learning in reasonable computational times. This preliminary analysis shows the potential benefits, especially in understudied metropolitan areas from emerging markets, supporting a more effective delivery process, and encouraging proactive, dynamic decision making during the execution stage. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Logistics and Services)
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Article
Lean–Green Improvement Opportunities for Sustainable Manufacturing Using Water Telemetry in Agri-Food Industry
Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 2240; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042240 - 19 Feb 2021
Viewed by 1072
Abstract
Water has become a critical resource due to increased manufacturing activities. However, there is a lack of detailed information on water management and consumption by industries. In the recent bibliography, lean–green was established as a good approach for achieving sustainability in manufacturing industries, [...] Read more.
Water has become a critical resource due to increased manufacturing activities. However, there is a lack of detailed information on water management and consumption by industries. In the recent bibliography, lean–green was established as a good approach for achieving sustainability in manufacturing industries, but few studies have aimed to achieve both operational and environmental improvements in water consumption. In this paper, we present a multi-case study in the agri-food industry in which water consumption in company activities is monitored, allowing them to improve their industrial processes based on lean–green practices, leading to a zero-waste strategy for this critical resource. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of having detailed knowledge regarding water consumption in order to discover, in a lean–green context, new improvement opportunities which could remain hidden by the current way of analysing consumption. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Logistics and Services)
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