Sustainable and Responsible Supply Chain Architectures: Integrating Technology, Ethics, and Multi-Criteria Decision Frameworks for Resilient Healthcare and Industrial Supply Networks
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37547/Keywords:
sustainable supply chains, RFID, IoT, blockchain, multi-criteria decision analysis, corporate social responsibility, human rights, traceabilityAbstract
Background: Contemporary supply chains operate within intensifying pressures: environmental sustainability, social responsibility, regulatory compliance, and the need for technological integration. The literature reveals convergent themes—traceability, ethical sourcing, multi-criteria decision support, and emergent digital infrastructures (RFID, IoT, blockchain)—yet exhibits fragmentation in methods and practical integration across sectors such as healthcare, pharmaceuticals, fashion, renewable energy, and food systems (Tan & Sidhu, 2022; Teh et al., 2019; Mejías et al., 2019; Mastrocinque et al., 2020).
Objective: This study synthesizes theoretical constructs and methodological approaches from the provided literature to propose an integrative framework for sustainable, ethically accountable, and technologically enabled supply chains. The framework unifies traceability systems, corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting, rights-based implementations, and multi-criteria decision support methods (e.g., AHP, fuzzy AHP, TOPSIS) for supplier selection and risk management.
Methods: A rigorous conceptual meta-analysis was conducted across the supplied references to extract design principles, performance metrics, decision criteria, and technology architectures. The methodological approach maps CSR themes to technical enablers (RFID/IoT, blockchain) and to decision tools (AHP variants, TOPSIS, grey-based methods), producing a layered framework with governance, technological, and analytical strata (Tate et al., 2010; Tan & Sidhu, 2022; Chowdhury, 2025; Gupta et al., 2015).
Results: The integrated model highlights five principal dimensions: (1) Governance & Compliance (regulatory GMP, CSR reporting), (2) Traceability & Transparency (RFID, IoT, blockchain), (3) Environmental & Occupational Health (HVAC energy strategies, lifecycle externalities), (4) Ethical & Human Rights Considerations (seafood and labor rights), and (5) Decision Analytics (AHP, fuzzy AHP, TOPSIS). Mapping evidence indicates complementarities—e.g., blockchain enhances immutable traceability supporting CSR disclosures; AHP-based methods effectively prioritize sustainability criteria when enriched by sensor data streams (Vaittinen, 2016; Tan & Sidhu, 2022; Chowdhury, 2025; Gupta et al., 2015).
Conclusion: The proposed architecture provides a theoretically grounded, practically actionable synthesis for organizations seeking sustainable, socially responsible, and technologically resilient supply chains. Implementation requires careful alignment with sectoral regulatory regimes, investment in capacity building, and an iterative approach to decision model calibration. Future empirical validation in multiple sectors is essential to quantify performance gains and identify socio-technical barriers.
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