Characterising the relationship between environmental sustainability and resilience in manufacturing

The study of resilience has grown since the 70s, with the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and geo-political issues around the world more recently influencing manufacturing supply chain operations. Moreover, sustainable supply chains will continue to drive businesses to operate in more competitive environments where there is resource scarcity, demand uncertainty, environmental concerns from stakeholders, etc. Few studies have attempted to study the synergies and trade-offs between sustainable and resilient practices for manufacturing; however, these findings are insufficient and need further exploration. This study explores the relationship between environmental and manufacturing resilience practices to support decision-making in dynamically changing environments and jointly build resilient and green SCs. This characterisation was studied based on four relationships—whether they were equivalent, supporting, competing/incompatible, or overlapping. The study hence advances the understanding of the relationships between manufacturing resilience and sustainability considering the uncertain context within which manufacturing supply chains currently operate.