Date of Graduation

5-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Industrial Engineering (MSIE)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Industrial Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Parnell, Gregory S.

Committee Member

Esper, Terry L.

Second Committee Member

Pohl, Edward A.

Keywords

Social sciences; Applied sciences; Supplier selection; Sustainability; Triple bottom line

Abstract

Companies have primarily been focusing on the financial bottom line i.e., on increasing profits by increasing revenues and reducing costs. With high energy usage and environmental change posing threats to the environment and business operations, companies are now considering sustainability. Since some global suppliers have low cost labor, Social well-being and human development has also emerged as major goals of a company performing global operations. Focusing on these three goals is termed the "Triple Bottom Line" (TBL). We study and explore the TBL benefits that could be realized by an oil and gas company by focusing on sustainable suppliers. A company with a global supply chain cannot be sustainable without sustainable suppliers. This thesis develops the business case for sustainable suppliers using the TBL and presents the benefits of integrating sustainable suppliers into the supply chain. We consider a major oil and gas company and use multi-objective decision analysis to perform the analysis.

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