Sustainable Supply Chain Design and Planning: A Case in the Cork Industry

01/21/2021

Cork has been an important material throughout history. Its range of physical properties means that it has several applications such as cork stoppers, building insulation and floor and wall coverings. The habitat of the cork oak is mainly located alongside the Mediterranean region, being Portugal the country that spearheaded the development of the cork industry and is currently the major exporter of cork goods. This work is carried out at Equipar, an industrial unit (IU) of Corticeira Amorim, world leader in the cork sector. In the sustainability context, the aim of this work is to holistically address and study the supply chain of Corticeira Amorim in relation to three aspects: economic, environment and social. Throughout this work, it is contextualized the cork industry, Corticeira Amorim and how the company looks into sustainability concerns. A literature review was performed to define what is a sustainable supply chain and infer which methodologies are best suited to assess it. Supply chain optimization in the context of TBL was the methodology chosen. The data used to characterize the supply chain is based on company-specific information and the literature. Results show that the main factor in economic and environmental terms is transportation, mainly due to the wide supply chain of Corticeira Amorim. In terms of social results, there was no trade-off that stood out. A sensitivity analysis is performed and confirms that the supply chain is robust to demand uncertainty.

Authors in the community:

• 

  J

  João André Ascenso Fialho Ventura Gomes

  ist425962

Supervisors of this institution:

• 

  B

  Bruna Alexandra Elias Mota

  ist155745

• 

  A

  Ana Paula Ferreira Dias Barbosa Póvoa

  ist13662

other-engineering-and-technologies - Other engineering and technologies

eng - English

Instituto Superior Técnico