Abstract
Sustainability in a supply chain is a demand on the one hand and a challenge on the other. It is necessary to balance between these dimensions in order to fulfill the purpose of the supply chain. Therefore, in the first phase—i.e., in procurement—it is necessary to take into account its sustainability. In this paper, a sustainable supplier was selected respecting all three aspects of sustainability. The evaluation was carried out on the basis of a total of 21 criteria arranged into two levels and three groups. A new Interval Rough SAW (simple additive weighting) method, which represents a contribution to the treatment of problems belonging to the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM), was developed. The integration of interval rough numbers with the SAW method was completed. In addition, the full consistency method (FUCOM) was applied to determine the weights of the criteria. The integrated FUCOM-Interval Rough SAW model enables treatment of multi-criteria problems while reducing subjectivity to the lowest possible level and eliminating uncertainties and ambiguities. The results obtained were determined throughout a sensitivity analysis consisting of a change in the weight of the criteria and the influence of dynamic matrices on the change in ranks. In addition, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (SCC) was calculated to confirm the stability of the previously obtained results.
Highlights
Procurement of materials as a separate logistics sub-system plays an important role in achieving the efficiency of a sustainable supply chain and meeting its goals related to meeting the requirements of all participants
The results show that environmental costs, quality of product, price of product, occupational health and safety systems, and environmental competencies have been ranked as the top five sustainable supplier selection criteria
The integration with the full consistency method (FUCOM) method has been performed, which allows for reduction of subjectivity in determining the weight of criteria
Summary
Procurement of materials as a separate logistics sub-system plays an important role in achieving the efficiency of a sustainable supply chain and meeting its goals related to meeting the requirements of all participants. In the initial phase—i.e., in a procurement process—it is necessary to take into account adequate selection of suppliers, which will greatly influence the increase in competitiveness in the market. In order to do this, it is necessary to consider all three aspects of sustainability: environmental, economic, and social. In this paper, the evaluation of suppliers has been performed considering 21 criteria from the aspect of all sustainability factors. For this purpose, an integrated FUCOM-Interval Rough SAW model was developed. The Information 2019, 10, 292; doi:10.3390/info10100292 www.mdpi.com/journal/information
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