Supply Chain Viability by Integrating R-imperatives, Product Development, and Design Decisions: A Stochastic Programming Framework

This study focuses on operationalizing R-imperatives by integrating product development and design decisions in supply chains (SC) facing disruptive events. This approach leads to viable SCs that are sustainable, resilient to disruptions, adaptable to ongoing changes, and enhance circularity. We use a stochastic programming approach to propose this new planning framework. To measure SC resilience, we consider the operational cost increase during the recovery period following a potential disruption. Additionally, flexibility in product configuration after disruptions is introduced as a new contingency strategy in this study. Motivated by two European companies involved in a circular manufacturing initiative in Norway, we define disruption scenarios and assess the effectiveness of our framework. Our results show that SCs can improve both economically and in terms of circularity when R-imperatives, product development, and design decisions are integrated. Furthermore, under disruption events, SC resilience improves on average by 4.28% and 5.07% in these two case studies. We also highlight that budget savings from this approach can range between 2% to 10% when a SC adapts to increased demand.