A supply chain design with product life cycle and green procurement considerations

Effective design and management of supply chains assists in production and delivery of a variety of products at low cost, high quality, high service level, and short lead times. Thus, it is clear that these competitive criteria differ during the different phases of the product life cycle. To be effective, a firm's supply chain design strategy should be governed by objectives that are different from traditional objectives, have a strategic orientation, select the efficient supply chain partners, and dynamically match the supply chain strategies. On the other hand, industry practitioners and policy makers are under increasing pressure to continuously reduce the negative environmental impact of their supply chains. This paper presents a two-phase mathematical programming approach for effective supply chain design with a total cost minimization, while considering environmental aspects throughout the product life cycle.