Altea Lorenzo-Arribas, Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland Andrea Bonfiglioli, Edinburgh Napier University Dr. Joao Quariguasi Frota Net, Manchester University *Dr. Miles Weaver, Edinburgh Napier University * Presentation lead E: [email protected]T: @DrMilesWeaver OR for Sustainability: Assessing Contribution, Concepts and Research Issues
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OR for Sustainability: Assessing Contribution and Call for Action (Euro2013 presentation in Rome)
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Altea Lorenzo-Arribas, Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland
Andrea Bonfiglioli, Edinburgh Napier University
Dr. Joao Quariguasi Frota Net, Manchester University
To assess OR contribution and concepts used to address the “grand challenge” of sustainability.
This presentation presents some preliminary findings from:
– Part A: Systematic literature review of ABS ranked journals in OR classified by:
• Sustainability dimension (i.e. economic, social, environmental and governance)
• OR concepts and tools applied
– Part B: the emerging themes identified at a round-table discussion and pilot questionnaire of OR society members attending the YOR18
– Research and practical implications for the OR community to address this ‘grand challenge’ – OR for Embedded Sustainability
Sustainability as a ‘concept’ and ‘ground’ for applying OR“meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland 1987; Sanders, 2012)
Adapted from: Laszlo (2008)
Upstream(i.e. resource consumption)
OperationsDownstream(i.e. pollutant emissions)
• Environmental impacts - Energy conservation - Water and solid waste - Air emissions - Toxic materials
• Social impacts - Human rights - Community involvement
• Economic impacts - Jobs, economic growth - Tax base
• Environmental impacts - CO2, NO2 emissions
- Fossil fuel, renewables
• Social impacts - Worker health and safety - Employability, diversity - Community integration
• Economic impacts - Jobs, economic growth - Tax base
• Environmental impacts - Durability - Energy use - Recycling, remanufacture
• Social impacts• - Exposure to toxics - Customer health & safety
- Ergonomics
• Economic impacts - Meeting unmet societal needs - Partnerships to support schools, etc.
Embedding sustainability into strategy and practice: begins with understanding the triple bottom line approach and capability development
• Triple bottom line approach (Elkington, 1998)
Hart (2005) proposed:
– One of the most important drivers of new resources and capability development for firms will be the constraints and challenges posed by the natural environment
– Competitive advantage, is to be rooted in capabilities that facilitate environmentally sustainable activity
– It appears inevitable that business (markets) will be constrained by and dependent upon ecosystems (nature).
A strategic role for OR and addressing “grand challenges”
• OR has been slow to define and claim a strategic role for OR (Bell, 1998)– May help explain infancy and extent of
research on sustainability issues?– Community should discuss OR as a strategic
asset– Exciting future to provide a vision
• Lane (2010) argues, so do we, that OR research has considerable advantages to deal with strategic issues and grand challenges
Need to make connections between OR and sustainability literature• White et al., (2009) the ‘OR’ label appears to have a low profile in the
discourse and appropriate methodologies and methods in sustainability
• Midgley and Reynolds (2004) suggested an agenda for systems/OR research– OR has considerable scope to address to address sustainability issues,
citing three essential characteristics of OR:• OR has a systems orientation
– i.e. boundary setting – who ‘controls’ / ‘governs’ a supply chain? How are ‘relationships’ forged and managed?
• Being of an interdisciplinary nature • Being explicitly purposeful
• Lack of concentration of research activity (i.e. conference streams, special interest group, special issues in OR journals) except narrower streams (e.g. greening, CLSCM)
A. Making connections: Review of OR and sustainability literature
• Builds upon and extends a keynote paper presented at YOR18 on: Embedding Sustainability into Strategy: An Operations Research Society Perspective
• Systematic literature review of the 57 ABS 2010 ranked journals (29 journals returned results) reviewed under the category of OR/MS research (omitting 1* journals)
– Search terms established in Ashby et al., (2013) keywords plus (operation* research + (sustainability + sustainable development)
– 172 papers included in the review, sorted and consolidated – Categorised by sustainability dimension (i.e. economic, social, environmental and
governance)
B. Emerging themes from preliminary questionnaire and round-table at YOR18 held at Exeter University (April 2013)
• Purpose: to inform a wider survey aimed at OR Society members
• Focus group methodology: o Personally administered semi-structured questionnaireo Roundtable covering the topics included in the questionnaire and
adequacy of questions.o 12 respondents/participants
• Representatives from research community (63.64%) and OR practitioners (36.36%). Note: audience ‘Young to OR’.
• 75% of respondents had NO previous involvement in sustainability issues
A. Starting point for the literature review …Using Ashby et al., (2012) Search terms
* The term sustainable development was searched with sustainability by Ashby et al., (2012). For the purposes of this review the terms are split to ensure that no papers are omitted from the search.
A. No. of papers per ABS ranked journal title using pre-defined search terms
Europ
ean
Jour
nal o
f Ope
ratio
nal R
esea
rch
(3)
Group
Dec
ision
and
Neg
otiat
ion (3
)
Jour
nal o
f Bus
iness
Log
istics
(2)
Jour
nal o
f the
Ope
ratio
nal R
esea
rch
Societ
y (3
)
Annals
of O
pera
tions
Res
earc
h (2
)
Inte
rnat
ional
Jour
nal o
f Pro
duct
ion E
cono
mics
(3)
Jour
nal o
f Opt
imiza
tion
Theor
y an
d App
licat
ions
(2)
Omeg
a (3
)
Inte
rface
s (2
)
Syste
m D
ynam
ics R
eview
(2)
Syste
ms
Resea
rch
and
Behav
ioral
Scienc
e (2
)
Jour
nal o
f Con
stru
ction
Eng
ineer
ing a
nd M
anag
emen
t (2)
Man
ufac
turin
g & S
ervic
e Ope
ratio
ns M
anag
emen
t (3)
Projec
t Man
agem
ent J
ourn
al (2
)
Compu
ters
& In
dust
rial E
ngine
ering
(2)
Inte
rnat
ional
Jour
nal o
f Pro
duct
ion R
esea
rch
(3)
Inte
rnat
ional
Trans
actio
ns in
Ope
ratio
nal R
esea
rch
(2)
IEEE T
rans
actio
ns o
n Eng
ineer
ing M
anag
emen
t (3)
Inte
rnat
ional
Jour
nal o
f Phy
sical
Distrib
ution
& L
ogist
ics M
anag
emen
t (2)
Inte
rnat
ional
Jour
nal o
f Pro
ject M
anag
emen
t (2)
Inte
rnat
ional
Jour
nal o
f Tec
hnolo
gy M
anag
emen
t (2)
Reliab
ility
Engine
ering
& S
yste
m S
afet
y (3
)
The In
tern
ation
al Jo
urna
l of L
ogist
ics M
anag
emen
t (2)
Total
Quality
Man
agem
ent &
Bus
iness
Exc
ellen
ce (2
)
Inte
rnat
ional
Jour
nal o
f Log
istics
: Res
earc
h an
d App
licat
ions
(2)
Jour
nal o
f App
lied
Statis
tics
(2)
Jour
nal o
f Man
ufac
turin
g Tec
hnolo
gy M
anag
emen
t (2)
Jour
nal o
f Sch
eduli
ng (3
)
Man
agem
ent S
cienc
e (4
)0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
American led 38%
EU led 62%
Using SCImago's website
A. No. of OR reviewed papers per year (all search terms)
Un
itl M
arc
h!
B. Perception and importance of sustainability in focus-group sample
Perception Importance
Despite a 33.33% of the respondents considering it just relatively important or not important, all of the participants could picture themselves as being involved in sustainability projects in the future.
In it
s inf
ancy
Estab
lishe
d an
d ac
cept
ed
Outda
ted
Irrele
vant
Other
0.00
10.00
20.00
30.00
40.00
50.00
60.00
70.00
80.00
66.67
16.67
0.00 0.00
8.33
Fre
qu
ency
(%
)
0.00
5.00
10.00
15.00
20.00
25.00
30.00
35.00
8.33333333333333
25
33.3333333333333
8.33333333333333
16.6666666666667
Fre
qu
ency
(%
)
Classification of OR literature and focus group by sustainability sphere
A. Within OR literature
Classification of OR literature by sustainability sphere
Total no of instances in sample
Percentage Terms
Sum of Environmental 152 88.4%
Sum of Social 120 69.8%
Social + Environmental 83 48.3%
Sum of Governance 32 18.6%
Governance + Social 0 0%
Governance + Environmental
3 1.7%
ALL 29 16.9%
B. From focus group respondents
Social Economic Environmental0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
20.0
25.0
30.0
35.0
40.0
45.0
26.9
30.8
42.3
Fre
qu
ency
(%
)
A. Classification concept/tool per instancein OR literature
Linea
r / N
onlin
ear p
rogr
amm
ing
Lifec
ycle
Asses
smen
t
Exper
t Sys
tem
s
Mult
i Crit
eria
Decisi
on M
aking
Heuris
tics
/ Gen
etic
Algorit
hm
Syste
m D
ynam
ics
Stoch
astic
Ana
lysis
Soft O
R / Sys
tem
s Thin
king
Fuzzy
Dec
ision
Mak
ing
Mult
i Obje
ctive
Dec
ision
Mak
ing
Game
Theor
y / B
usine
ss G
ames
AHP (Ana
lytica
l Hier
arch
y Pro
cess
)
Mon
te C
arlo
Mult
i Attr
ibute
Dec
ision
Ana
lysis
Data
Envelo
pmen
t Ana
lysis
/ DEA
Mult
i Age
nt S
imula
tion
Mod
elling
Sprea
dshe
et S
imula
tion
Bayes
ian A
nalys
is
Single
Criter
ion
Discre
te E
vent
Sim
ulatio
n
Equilib
rium
Mod
el
AEZ Opt
imisa
tion
Exerg
oeco
nom
ics0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
30%28% 28%
27%
24%
20% 20%18% 17%
14% 14%
9% 9%8% 8%
5% 5% 5% 5% 4%3%
1% 1%
B. Focus group responses to methodologies associated to Sustainability
TechniquesA. Lit.
ReviewB. Focus
group
Simulation 44.7% 35.7%
Programming 29.7% 21.4%
Soft OR 18.0% 21.4%
Multi Criteria Analysis
9.3% - 26.7%
14.3%
Stochastic Models
19.8% 7.1%
NB. The Literature review is % of no. of instances.
Simula
tion
Progr
amm
ing
Soft M
etho
ds
Mult
i Crit
eria
Analys
is
Stoch
astic
Mod
els0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
20.0
25.0
30.0
35.0
40.0
35.7
21.4 21.4
14.3
7.1
Res
po
nd
ents
(%
)
B. Making connections between OR and sustainability: Findings from the round-table
Emerging themes from focus group
o Sustainability is a grand challenge, a wicked problem
o Lack of consensus on how to measure performance of sustainability
o Great focus of the OR community on tools rather than solutions to address sustainability issues
o Idea to generate interest in the OR community: to submit a problem for the profession to solve?
o Social aspects of sustainability are already being tackled by other professions (psychologists, sociologists) but have not been properly incorporated in the OR agenda
o Sustainability is for everybody but some clarity on OR concepts/tools application & utility might be useful (particularly for the social dimension)
Research issues and implications:What next? (I)
Systematic literature review and survey of ORS members:
1. How has sustainability been represented in OR/systems research to date?– Interest / perception of sustainability within OR community &
compared with other disciplines – Importance / relevance between European Vs. American led
journals– Contribution from OR community & issues in measuring
performance in terms of sustainability– Clarity and consensus building around a definition for ‘embedded
sustainability’ (rather than ‘sustainable development’?)
Research issues and implications:What next? (II)
Systematic literature review and survey of ORS members:
2. What are the key similarities and differences in focus and findings/outputs?
– Balance of studies between the triple-bottom line dimensions (i.e. dominance on ‘environmental issues’)
– Investigate the ‘societal dimension’ to establish some clarity around OR purpose
– Explore and extend these dimensions to include “governance” as an emerging themes
– Compared with other disciplines areas (i.e. OM & SCM)
Research issues and implications:What next? (III)Systematic literature review and survey of ORS members:
3. What research methodologies, OR/systems methods and tools have been used, which dominate and why?
– Applicability & Utility of OR tool(s)/concept(s) per dimension (ESEG impact)/category of problem (upstream, operation, downstream)
• Focus on both “hard” and “soft” aspects for different type of problem (i.e. utility of systems thinking and soft OR to structure ‘wicked problems’ noted in focus groups)
4. What contribution can the OR community offer in the future?
– Focus OR minds: on the “The Sustainability Problem” & re-visiting the existing body of knowledge with a ‘sustainability’ lens
– Scoping of the application for OR to address this grand challenge– Demonstrate impact as a discipline in both theory and practice
Archimedes: “There is no limit, just give me somewhere to stand, and I shall move the Earth”
Drachmann (1958, p. 281) as cited in Lane (2010) when discussing OR addressing ‘grand challenges’
… in terms of the future: OR for Embedded Sustainability?
I came to your door as a stranger,
I lived in your house as a guest,
I leave your door as a friend,
My earthRabindranath Tagore,
1st non-European to be awarded a Nobel prize for literature in 1913,