Carbon footprint inventory route planning and selection of hot spot suppliers

In order to achieve the data accuracy on carbon emission from the suppliers, a complete carbon footprint inventory must be compiled at each supplier's site. Generally speaking, to collect the carbon emission inventory, data from various sources must be obtained, resulting in consumption of many resources from enterprises and suppliers. Therefore, to perform the compilation efficiently, a more systematic method for visiting suppliers is required. The carbon footprint inventory routing problem, based the vehicle routing problem (VRP), explores the selection of appropriate suppliers for inventory compilation after the carbon emission reaches a certain accuracy level and determination of the efficient carbon emission inventory route. In this study, the VRP is modified for the selection of the suppliers. Furthermore, by applying the sensitivity analysis, this study discusses the replacement of primary data by secondary data and development of the decision method that can be used to evaluate the route optimization, efficiency maximization, and cost minimization for carbon footprint inventory routing planning.