Inf. Sci. | 2019
Sustainable supplier selection based on AHPSort II in interval type-2 fuzzy environment
Abstract
Abstract With increasing attention on protecting the environment and social involvement, the concept of sustainable development has been widely mentioned in various industries. A new management mode, sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), has come into being and has become a hot topic of discussion. As sustainable supplier selection is the most important issue in this mode, many multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods for sustainable supplier selection have been proposed, though sometimes it is more useful the sorting of suppliers into classes that show the performance of such suppliers. Therefore, this paper proposes the use of the sorting method, AHPSort II, under a fuzzy environment with interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FSs) and a new way of selecting representative points for inferring suppliers’ priorities that will improve the management of unclear class assignments by softening transitions between classes facilitating the sustainable supplier selection. A significant reduction of comparisons compared to the AHP method together a higher precision of inferred priorities is occurred. This novel IT2FS sorting MCDM makes decisions become more in line with reality because of a better management of uncertainty and more accurate priorities. Finally, an application of the previous method to the selection of a sustainable material supplier is provided to show how the proposed method worked.