Analytic Network Process for Multicriteria Decision-Making in Sustainable Composites Supply Chain Management

In recent years, bio-based materials have attracted sizable attention as a compelling choice for the development of environmentally friendly engineering products. Using natural fibres, as one of the prominent examples of bio-material sources, requires pre-processing decisions on biomass collection and size reduction. Such decisions play a critical role in the viability and profitability of underlying Supply Chain (SC), namely for the fibers conversion into a value-added product. Moreover, a holistic decision process should include economic as well as environmental, social, and technical impacts of the SC. In this paper, a multi-criteria decision-making model, based on the Analytic Network Process (ANP), is developed to support the sustainable development of a hemp-based biocomposite SC by integrating economic, environmental, social, and technical parameters. For economic and environmental impacts, outputs of the techno-economic and life cycle assessment models arc used to quantify the required decision factors. For the social dimension, the number of potential job opportunities is included. Expert's opinion on expected product quality (technical factor) for each alternative is also considered using qualitative/fuzzy data collection. The results identified the most appropriate biomass pre-processing equipment set, which would assist the SC managers in utilizing the available natural resources in a holistically sustainable manner. Moreover, to investigate the robustness of the model, a sensitivity analysis of the decision-makers preferences over decision indicators is conducted.