IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v274y2019i1p1-21.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Operations research for sustainability assessment of products: A review

Author

Listed:
  • Thies, Christian
  • Kieckhäfer, Karsten
  • Spengler, Thomas S.
  • Sodhi, Manbir S.

Abstract

The environmental and social impacts of products are being increasingly scrutinized. This necessitates systematic assessment methods. Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) provides a framework to addresses diverse sustainability issues over the product's life cycle, but its application is complicated. Major challenges, such as the selection of relevant indicators, multi-criteria comparisons of alternatives, the treatment of uncertainties, or the integration of spatially differentiated data, can be facilitated by adopting advanced analytical methods from Operations Research. This paper reviews 142 articles that use Operations Research methods for product-related sustainability assessments. The articles were selected from peer-reviewed scientific literature in a systematic search and screening process. Descriptive analysis shows that related publication output is growing over time and originates mainly in journals related to Environmental Management. While ecological indicators are considered by most articles, the integration of economic and social indicators is emerging. Focusing on the contributions of Operations Research, a detailed analysis shows that more than half of the articles adopt methods from Multi-Attribute Decision Making (MADM), followed by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Multi-Objective Decision Making (MODM). Uncertainties with regard to inventory data and decision makers’ preferences are addressed using fuzzy logic, stochastic models, or sensitivity analysis. The use of spatially differentiated data is not frequently found in the reviewed articles. Research needs derived from this analysis comprise the integration of qualitative and semi-quantitative (social) indicators, the simultaneous consideration of global and local sustainability objectives, and the application of systematic procedures to address uncertainty.

Suggested Citation

  • Thies, Christian & Kieckhäfer, Karsten & Spengler, Thomas S. & Sodhi, Manbir S., 2019. "Operations research for sustainability assessment of products: A review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 274(1), pages 1-21.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:274:y:2019:i:1:p:1-21
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2018.04.039
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037722171830359X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejor.2018.04.039?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barbosa-Póvoa, Ana Paula & da Silva, Cátia & Carvalho, Ana, 2018. "Opportunities and challenges in sustainable supply chain: An operations research perspective," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 268(2), pages 399-431.
    2. Ryan P. Scott & Alison C. Cullen & Cate Fox‐Lent & Igor Linkov, 2016. "Can Carbon Nanomaterials Improve CZTS Photovoltaic Devices? Evaluation of Performance and Impacts Using Integrated Life‐Cycle Assessment and Decision Analysis," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(10), pages 1916-1935, October.
    3. Giuseppe Munda, 2016. "Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis and Sustainable Development," International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, in: Salvatore Greco & Matthias Ehrgott & José Rui Figueira (ed.), Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis, edition 2, chapter 0, pages 1235-1267, Springer.
    4. Chen, Chialin & Zhu, Joe & Yu, Jiun-Yu & Noori, Hamid, 2012. "A new methodology for evaluating sustainable product design performance with two-stage network data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 221(2), pages 348-359.
    5. X Wang & H K Chan & L White, 2014. "A comprehensive decision support model for the evaluation of eco-designs," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 65(6), pages 917-934, June.
    6. Le Teno, J. F. & Mareschal, B., 1998. "An interval version of PROMETHEE for the comparison of building products' design with ill-defined data on environmental quality," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 522-529, September.
    7. Per Andersen & Niels Christian Petersen, 1993. "A Procedure for Ranking Efficient Units in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(10), pages 1261-1264, October.
    8. Christina Wulf & Petra Zapp & Andrea Schreiber & Josefine Marx & Holger Schlör, 2017. "Lessons Learned from a Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Rare Earth Permanent Magnets," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 21(6), pages 1578-1590, December.
    9. Picazo-Tadeo, Andrés J. & Beltrán-Esteve, Mercedes & Gómez-Limón, José A., 2012. "Assessing eco-efficiency with directional distance functions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 220(3), pages 798-809.
    10. Przybylski, Anthony & Gandibleux, Xavier, 2017. "Multi-objective branch and bound," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 260(3), pages 856-872.
    11. Chan, Hing Kai & Wang, Xiaojun & Raffoni, Anna, 2014. "An integrated approach for green design: Life-cycle, fuzzy AHP and environmental management accounting," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 344-360.
    12. J. Bloemhof-Ruwaard & H. Koudijs & J. Vis, 1995. "Environmental impacts of fat blends," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 6(4), pages 371-387, December.
    13. Mika Kortelainen & Timo Kuosmanen, 2007. "Eco-efficiency analysis of consumer durables using absolute shadow prices," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 57-69, October.
    14. Iribarren, Diego & Martín-Gamboa, Mario & Dufour, Javier, 2013. "Environmental benchmarking of wind farms according to their operational performance," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 589-597.
    15. Cooper, W. W. & Hemphill, H. & Huang, Z. & Li, S. & Lelas, V. & Sullivan, D. W., 1997. "Survey of mathematical programming models in air pollution management," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 1-35, January.
    16. Jornada, Daniel & Leon, V. Jorge, 2016. "Biobjective robust optimization over the efficient set for Pareto set reduction," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 252(2), pages 573-586.
    17. Hatami-Marbini, Adel & Emrouznejad, Ali & Tavana, Madjid, 2011. "A taxonomy and review of the fuzzy data envelopment analysis literature: Two decades in the making," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 214(3), pages 457-472, November.
    18. Eric Korpi & Timo Ala-Risku, 2008. "Life cycle costing: a review of published case studies," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 23(3), pages 240-261, March.
    19. Mette Wier & Line Block Christoffersen & Trine Jensen & Ole Pedersen & Hans Keiding & Jesper Munksgaard, 2005. "Evaluating sustainability of household consumption—Using DEA to assess environmental performance," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 425-447.
    20. Govindan, Kannan & Jepsen, Martin Brandt, 2016. "ELECTRE: A comprehensive literature review on methodologies and applications," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 250(1), pages 1-29.
    21. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    22. Hanks, Robert W. & Weir, Jeffery D. & Lunday, Brian J., 2017. "Robust goal programming using different robustness echelons via norm-based and ellipsoidal uncertainty sets," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 262(2), pages 636-646.
    23. Yoram Wind & Thomas L. Saaty, 1980. "Marketing Applications of the Analytic Hierarchy Process," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(7), pages 641-658, July.
    24. Ines Boufateh & Anne Perwuelz & Besoa Rabenasolo & Anne-Marie Jolly-Desodt, 2011. "Multiple criteria decision-making for environmental impacts optimisation," International Journal of Business Performance and Supply Chain Modelling, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 3(1), pages 28-42.
    25. Korhonen, Pekka J. & Luptacik, Mikulas, 2004. "Eco-efficiency analysis of power plants: An extension of data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(2), pages 437-446, April.
    26. Valentina Prado-Lopez & Ben A. Wender & Thomas P Seager & Lise Laurin & Mikhail Chester & Erdem Arslan, 2016. "Tradeoff Evaluation Improves Comparative Life Cycle Assessment: A Photovoltaic Case Study," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 20(4), pages 710-718, August.
    27. Anne-Wil Harzing & Satu Alakangas, 2016. "Google Scholar, Scopus and the Web of Science: a longitudinal and cross-disciplinary comparison," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 106(2), pages 787-804, February.
    28. Ness, Barry & Urbel-Piirsalu, Evelin & Anderberg, Stefan & Olsson, Lennart, 2007. "Categorising tools for sustainability assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 498-508, January.
    29. R G Dyson & E A Shale, 2010. "Data envelopment analysis, operational research and uncertainty," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 61(1), pages 25-34, January.
    30. Joe Zhu, 2014. "Data Envelopment Analysis," International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, in: Quantitative Models for Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking, edition 3, chapter 1, pages 1-9, Springer.
    31. Mareschal, Bertrand & Brans, Jean-Pierre, 1988. "Geometrical representations for MCDA," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 69-77, February.
    32. Kravanja, Zdravko & Čuček, Lidija, 2013. "Multi-objective optimisation for generating sustainable solutions considering total effects on the environment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 67-80.
    33. Kao, Chiang, 2014. "Network data envelopment analysis: A review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 239(1), pages 1-16.
    34. Nuri Cihat Onat & Murat Kucukvar & Anthony Halog & Scott Cloutier, 2017. "Systems Thinking for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment: A Review of Recent Developments, Applications, and Future Perspectives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-25, April.
    35. Matthias Finkbeiner & Erwin M. Schau & Annekatrin Lehmann & Marzia Traverso, 2010. "Towards Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 2(10), pages 1-14, October.
    36. Wang, Xiaojun & Chan, Hing Kai & Li, Dong, 2015. "A case study of an integrated fuzzy methodology for green product development," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 241(1), pages 212-223.
    37. Kadziński, Miłosz & Cinelli, Marco & Ciomek, Krzysztof & Coles, Stuart R. & Nadagouda, Mallikarjuna N. & Varma, Rajender S. & Kirwan, Kerry, 2018. "Co-constructive development of a green chemistry-based model for the assessment of nanoparticles synthesis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 264(2), pages 472-490.
    38. Moed, Henk F. & Bar-Ilan, Judit & Halevi, Gali, 2016. "A new methodology for comparing Google Scholar and Scopus," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 533-551.
    39. Miettinen, Pauli & Hamalainen, Raimo P., 1997. "How to benefit from decision analysis in environmental life cycle assessment (LCA)," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 102(2), pages 279-294, October.
    40. Olesen, Ole B. & Petersen, Niels Christian, 2016. "Stochastic Data Envelopment Analysis—A review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 251(1), pages 2-21.
    41. Neus Sanjuan & Javier Ribal & Gabriela Clemente & Ma Loreto Fenollosa, 2011. "Measuring and Improving Eco‐efficiency Using Data Envelopment Analysis," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 15(4), pages 614-628, August.
    42. Rubem, Ana Paula dos Santos & Soares de Mello, João Carlos C.B. & Angulo Meza, Lidia, 2017. "A goal programming approach to solve the multiple criteria DEA model," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 260(1), pages 134-139.
    43. David Rochat & Claudia R. Binder & Jaime Diaz & Olivier Jolliet, 2013. "Combining Material Flow Analysis, Life Cycle Assessment, and Multiattribute Utility Theory," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 17(5), pages 642-655, October.
    44. Kengpol, Athakorn & Boonkanit, Prin, 2011. "The decision support framework for developing Ecodesign at conceptual phase based upon ISO/TR 14062," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(1), pages 4-14, May.
    45. Li, Yongjun & Xie, Jianhui & Wang, Meiqiang & Liang, Liang, 2016. "Super efficiency evaluation using a common platform on a cooperative game," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 255(3), pages 884-892.
    46. Behzadian, Majid & Kazemzadeh, R.B. & Albadvi, A. & Aghdasi, M., 2010. "PROMETHEE: A comprehensive literature review on methodologies and applications," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(1), pages 198-215, January.
    47. Gaussin, M. & Hu, G. & Abolghasem, S. & Basu, S. & Shankar, M.R. & Bidanda, B., 2013. "Assessing the environmental footprint of manufactured products: A survey of current literature," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 515-523.
    48. Brandenburg, Marcus & Govindan, Kannan & Sarkis, Joseph & Seuring, Stefan, 2014. "Quantitative models for sustainable supply chain management: Developments and directions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 233(2), pages 299-312.
    49. Tang, Christopher S. & Zhou, Sean, 2012. "Research advances in environmentally and socially sustainable operations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 223(3), pages 585-594.
    50. Jeffrey C. Cegan & Ashley M. Filion & Jeffrey M. Keisler & Igor Linkov, 2017. "Trends and applications of multi-criteria decision analysis in environmental sciences: literature review," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 123-133, June.
    51. Guitouni, Adel & Martel, Jean-Marc, 1998. "Tentative guidelines to help choosing an appropriate MCDA method," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 501-521, September.
    52. Bloemhof-Ruwaard, Jacqueline M. & van Beek, Paul & Hordijk, Leen & Van Wassenhove, Luk N., 1995. "Interactions between operational research and environmental management," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 229-243, September.
    53. Ruby Pineda‐Henson & Alvin B. Culaba & Guillermo A. Mendoza, 2002. "Evaluating Environmental Performance of Pulp and Paper Manufacturing Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process and Life‐Cycle Assessment," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 6(1), pages 15-28, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dyckhoff, Harald & Souren, Rainer, 2022. "Integrating multiple criteria decision analysis and production theory for performance evaluation: Framework and review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 297(3), pages 795-816.
    2. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Yuan, Yan & Goto, Mika, 2017. "A literature study for DEA applied to energy and environment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 104-124.
    3. Zhou, Haibo & Yang, Yi & Chen, Yao & Zhu, Joe, 2018. "Data envelopment analysis application in sustainability: The origins, development and future directions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 264(1), pages 1-16.
    4. Liu, John S. & Lu, Louis Y.Y. & Lu, Wen-Min, 2016. "Research fronts in data envelopment analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 33-45.
    5. Li, Yongjun & Liu, Jin & Ang, Sheng & Yang, Feng, 2021. "Performance evaluation of two-stage network structures with fixed-sum outputs: An application to the 2018winter Olympic Games," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    6. Ramanathan, Ramakrishnan & Ramanathan, Usha & Bentley, Yongmei, 2018. "The debate on flexibility of environmental regulations, innovation capabilities and financial performance – A novel use of DEA," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 131-138.
    7. Kheybari, Siamak & Rezaie, Fariba Mahdi & Farazmand, Hadis, 2020. "Analytic network process: An overview of applications," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 367(C).
    8. Trinks, Arjan & Mulder, Machiel & Scholtens, Bert, 2020. "An Efficiency Perspective on Carbon Emissions and Financial Performance," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    9. Adel Hatami-Marbini & Saber Saati & Seyed Mojtaba Sajadi, 2018. "Efficiency analysis in two-stage structures using fuzzy data envelopment analysis," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 26(4), pages 909-932, December.
    10. Greco, Salvatore & Ishizaka, Alessio & Tasiou, Menelaos & Torrisi, Gianpiero, 2019. "Sigma-Mu efficiency analysis: A methodology for evaluating units through composite indicators," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 278(3), pages 942-960.
    11. Amir Moradi-Motlagh & Ali Emrouznejad, 2022. "The origins and development of statistical approaches in non-parametric frontier models: a survey of the first two decades of scholarly literature (1998–2020)," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 318(1), pages 713-741, November.
    12. Kiani Mavi, Reza & Saen, Reza Farzipoor & Goh, Mark, 2019. "Joint analysis of eco-efficiency and eco-innovation with common weights in two-stage network DEA: A big data approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 553-562.
    13. Ghasemi, Mohammad Reza & Ignatius, Joshua & Rezaee, Babak, 2019. "Improving discriminating power in data envelopment models based on deviation variables framework," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 278(2), pages 442-447.
    14. Somayeh Soheilirad & Kannan Govindan & Abbas Mardani & Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas & Mehrbakhsh Nilashi & Norhayati Zakuan, 2018. "Application of data envelopment analysis models in supply chain management: a systematic review and meta-analysis," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 271(2), pages 915-969, December.
    15. Maryam Bagherikahvarin & Yves Smet, 2017. "Determining new possible weight values in PROMETHEE: a procedure based on data envelopment analysis," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(5), pages 484-495, May.
    16. Paweł Ziemba & Jarosław Wątróbski & Magdalena Zioło & Artur Karczmarczyk, 2017. "Using the PROSA Method in Offshore Wind Farm Location Problems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-20, November.
    17. González, Eduardo & Cárcaba, Ana & Ventura, Juan, 2015. "How car dealers adjust prices to reach the product efficiency frontier in the Spanish automobile market," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 38-48.
    18. Cinelli, Marco & Kadziński, Miłosz & Miebs, Grzegorz & Gonzalez, Michael & Słowiński, Roman, 2022. "Recommending multiple criteria decision analysis methods with a new taxonomy-based decision support system," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 302(2), pages 633-651.
    19. Valentin Zelenyuk, 2019. "Data Envelopment Analysis and Business Analytics: The Big Data Challenges and Some Solutions," CEPA Working Papers Series WP072019, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    20. Adel Hatami-Marbini & Aliasghar Arabmaldar & John Otu Asu, 2022. "Robust productivity growth and efficiency measurement with undesirable outputs: evidence from the oil industry," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 44(4), pages 1213-1254, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:274:y:2019:i:1:p:1-21. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.