Conceptual modeling of determining factors in the assessment of sustainability and resilience of the supply chain: a study of rubber industry suppliers in Iran

Evaluating the suppliers of an industry based on the sustainability and resilience of the supply chain (SC) has become one of the most attractive research topics in the world today. Meanwhile, the rubber industry is of fundamental importance due to the environmental effects and strengthening the resilience of its supply chain against disruptions. The main goal of the upcoming research is to design, extract and calculating of weight the determining factors in the sustainability and resilience of the supply chain and finally to select the best sustainable and resilient suppliers of the rubber industry by simultaneously applying the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) approach and the decision-making techniques of SWARA (Step-wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis) and MOORA (Multi-Objective Optimization on the Basis of Ratio Analysis). For this purpose, in this research, a conceptual and integrated model of the supplier evaluation system based on sustainability and resilience factors has been extracted first by extensively reviewing the literature and research background. Further, in order to investigate the final determining factors in the integrated performance evaluation of suppliers, the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) approach and the opinions of 40 experts in the rubber industry in Iran were used. The output of this approach showed that all the identified factors have a positive effect on the evaluation of suppliers. Then, by using the SWARA technique and using the opinions of 40 industry experts, the weight of the factors was calculated. The output of this technique showed that the third factor of supply chain sustainability, (S3: Strategy, support and commitment of company managers) with the highest weight is ranked first in terms of importance. Also, the 7th factor of sustainability (S7: Green warehouse) with the least weight in terms of importance in the integrated performance evaluation system of suppliers was placed in the 16th ranks. At the end of the research, 7 rubber industry suppliers were evaluated using the opinions of 40 experts and using MOORA's technique. The final result of this technique showed that the fifth supplier is ranked first, and the fourth supplier is ranked last. In this way, an integrated and comprehensive approach was proposed in order to measure and evaluate the suppliers of the rubber industry in Iran.