A model for supplier selection based on fuzzy multi-criteria group decision making

Abstract

The great number of suppliers with different capabilities, decision about their numbers and combination, and the way of communication and other related relationships, makes their selection in trouble. Since human perception and judgment which have ambiguous natures govern decision making process, using fuzzy sets will be a suitable selection in these cases. In this paper, we proposed a multi-criteria group decision-making approach based on fuzzy sets which can solve supplier selection problems that have much vagueness. The majority of the existing supplier selection approaches focus on operational metrics. This study considers the strategic and operational factors simultaneously. Business process improvement (BPI) is employed as the strategic criteria, and product quality measurement indicators are operational criteria. In this method, at first, linguistic variables are used to assess the importance weights of strategic and operational criterion. Then the rating of suppliers in strategic criteria and scores of suppliers' product in operational criteria are assessed. Finally, suppliers are ranked in terms of their scores in each criterion and the top suppliers are selected. Also, an empirical case study is performed to clarify the procedure of the proposed method. Key words: Supply chain management, supplier selection, fuzzy sets, multi-criteria group decision making, business process improvement.