Industry readiness measurement for circular supply chain implementation: an Irish dairy industry perspective

The implementation of a circular supply chain (CSC) has potential to help the Irish dairy industry mitigate their negative environmental impacts. However, the industry does not have a clear understanding on their level of readiness to implement CSC in factors that ensure success. While there have been few studies that have identified barriers and critical success factors of CSC implementation, limited attention has been given to developing a comprehensive framework capable of measuring an industry’s readiness for CSC implementation, especially in the dairy industry. This study provides novelty in the development and application of a novel hybrid approach based on best–worst method and fuzzy inference system (BWM–FIS) to evaluate readiness for CSC implementation in the Irish dairy industry. By identifying a comprehensive set of readiness measures and sub-measures and integrating them into the assessment framework, we provide a valuable tool for industry stakeholders to gauge their readiness level and make informed decisions regarding CSC implementation. The applicability of the proposed approach is then demonstrated with an empirical study of the Irish dairy industry. The data was collected from 34 supply chain and senior professionals from all 13 main processing and manufacturing companies in the Irish dairy industry. The empirical results for the Irish dairy industry suggests it has a moderate level of readiness on the CSC readiness scale. This indicates that dairy manufacturers in Ireland are not yet in an ideal state of readiness for CSC implementation.