Evaluating Social Sustainability In Manufacturing Supply Chain

A truly sustainable organization must consider sustainability’s economic,environmental,and social aspects.While the economic and environmental criteria have received considerable attention from scholars and practitioners,the social criteria have been neglected,especially in developing countries.Neglecting social sustainability can have severe negative consequences throughout the supply chain,especially in manufacturing firms.To address this issue,this study introduces a framework for examining the social sustainability criteria of supply chains in manufacturing companies.This study investigates the social sustainability criteria of manufacturing supply chains to highlight their importance to manufacturing organizations.Several research methodologies were utilized to accomplish this objective.The present research examines the multifarious constituents and processes that influence the operational efficiency of manufacturing supply chains,with specific attention directed toward assessing prerequisites for social sustainability.The research contributes to understanding how these factors impact the manufacturing supply chain.The findings offer valuable insights for industry managers,decision-makers,and practitioners to determine focus areas during implementation,enhance social sustainability in their manufacturing supply chains,and progress toward sustainable development.The present investigation delves into elucidating a framework designed to evaluate social sustainability within the context of the manufacturing industry.This endeavour entails the application of the best-worst method,employed to discern salient social criteria and to gauge their hierarchical significance within the operational continuum of the supply chain.The inquiry encompasses the managerial and pragmatic ramifications of this research undertaking.This study incorporates social sustainability principles within Pakistani enterprises’ supply chain and operational frameworks facilitated by survey methods.Furthermore,an exploration of the variances in accentuating diverse dimensions of social sustainability practices discernible within the upstream and downstream supply chains spanning multiple industries is undertaken.Moreover,it is important to consider the deployment of sustainable supplier assessment procedures within manufacturing businesses as part of this inquiry.This study proposes applying a fuzzy best-worst method to identify and prioritise various strategies for improving sustainability performance,particularly in minimising negative social impacts.Similarly,this study explores the fuzzy best-worst process tailored for the discerning task of supplier selection,characterised by a distinct emphasis on integrating social sustainability considerations.The research identifies pertinent evaluative dimensions and amalgamates evaluations from domain experts to formulate a comprehensive performance metric,thereby quantifying the socially sustainable facets of the manufacturing supply chain.A quantitative research methodology is employed for data acquisition.The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed framework are exemplified by utilising the best-worst method.A sample of 38 subject matter experts participates in social sustainability criteria assessment and hierarchical arrangement.It is subsequently subjected to a weighted averaging process to derive its rankings.Through the utilization of a survey methodology,a total of 41 manufacturing supply chain projects are subjected to evaluation under the purview of experienced managers.In addition,expert assessments are systematically undertaken to bolster the efficacy of the manufacturing supply chain’s operational performance and the authenticity of the research instrument.This study introduces the fuzzy best-worst method,incorporating trapezoidal membership and fuzzy membership functions to address uncertainties.This research contributes to the supply chain management literature by offering a direct fuzzy methodology that addresses computational challenges faced by previous experts in selecting the best sustainable supplier for the manufacturing firm.The study’s findings reveal that employment practices carry the most weight among the social sustainability criteria,substantiating their increased importance within the organizational setting.Furthermore,the research and development aspect is ranked fourth in the hierarchy of selected criteria.These findings imply that the evaluation of social sustainability within the manufacturing supply chain will be improved.The results of this study provide empirical support for the conclusion that manufacturing supply chain adoption of standard adaptation procedures influences customers’ propensity to connect with social enterprises.Furthermore,the study shows that organizational learning is the most essential criterion for a manufacturer’s social responsibility,receiving the highest score in operational performance.In contrast,productivity and corporate social responsibility are comparatively less important.Finally,two dimensions are determined for the customers’ social sustainability:customer satisfaction and commitment,to test the supplier selection and evaluation practicability.Thus,the currently proposed method is used to solve this problem,and skills in the labour force,continuous improvement,learning,questions,and product development all require the ability to develop and execute successfully implemented companyrecommended policies.This thesis makes significant contributions to literature in several ways.It proposes a comprehensive assessment model to investigate social sustainability in Pakistan’s manufacturing supply chain.The choice of Pakistan’s manufacturing sector is motivated by two key factors.Firstly,the industry plays a crucial role in the country’s economy,being the second-largest contributor to the gross domestic product after agriculture.However,it faces significant challenges,such as workers’ rights,poor employment practices,supplier selection,and labour strikes due to health and safety concerns.The thesis aims to prioritize and evaluate social sustainability criteria in the manufacturing supply chain within this context.Secondly,the thesis explores specific characteristics of Pakistan’s manufacturing supply chain performance,which offer unique social settings for existing and new companies to make decisions regarding sustainability criteria and address negative social reputation.This doctoral thesis has obtained rich research results related to innovation within the manufacturing supply chain for identifying social criteria and proposing a social sustainability evaluation framework.These findings offer valuable guidance for the development of innovative manufacturing firms.Moreover,they have broader applicability to developing countries,such as Pakistan,that exhibit structured,hierarchical,and formalized characteristics.