Sustainable supplier selection under attractive criteria through FIS and integrated fuzzy MCDM techniques

ABSTRACT

Suppliers as upstream partners play a crucial role to establish sustainability in the supply chain. For precise evaluation of the supplier’s performance on sustainability criteria researchers have mainly focused on Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) and Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) approaches. The objective of the paper is to evaluate the supplier’s sustainability performance through FIS and fuzzy MCDM approaches. Further, the results are compared and utilised to develop the Sustainable Supplier Selection (SSS) framework for the iron and steel industry of India. To calculate Suppliers Performance Index (SPI), three distinct FIS engines have been developed for each sustainability dimensions and fuzzy AHP and TOPSIS techniques are used for the MCDM environment. The results provide a deep inside of the sustainability performance of each supplier. It elicits from the results of two approaches, that ranks are interchanged among the top two suppliers.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainability
• sustainable supplier selection
• Fuzzy Inference System (FIS)
• fuzzy AHP
• Fuzzy TOPSIS
• fuzzy MCDM

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Naveen Jain

Naveen Jain is a research scholar at Mechanical Engineering department of National Institute of Technology, Raipur, India. He has completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Barkatullah University; Bhopal, India. He holds Masters in Production Engineering. His research areas are sustainability, sustainable supply chain management, multi criteria decision making and optimization. He has published papers in International and national journals and has presented papers in International conferences.

A. R. Singh

Dr. A. R. Singh is Asssistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department of National Institute of Technology, Raipur, India. He completed his Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical engineering from U.P.T.U, University. He has Master of Technology degree in Production Engineering from Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad, India. He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad, India. His areas of specialization are operation research, supply chain management, optimization techniques and multi criteria decision making. He has published many papers in International journals. Some of the international journals in which papers are published include – International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, International journal of multi criteria decision making, Journal of intelligent manufacturing, International Journal of Design Engineering, International journal of manufacturing systems, Applied Mathematics and Computation.

R. K. Upadhyay

Dr. R. K. Upadhyay has served as a Professor in Mechanical Engg Department at Anand Engineering College Agra and as Faculty Member in Department of Mechanical Engg, DEI, Dayalbagh, Agra. He is an Academic Veteran, Technocrat cum Researcher, Mentor and Practicing Entrepreneurship Facilitator with demonstrated history of working actively in the area of Subconscious and Emotional Intelligence, Peace of Mind, Motivation and Effective problem solving at workplaces. He has conducted many interesting and thought provoking sessions for students, parents, educational institutes and corporate sectors. Additionally, he has delivered brainstorming session on cutting-edge technologies Industry 4.0 which comprises of smart manufacturing, mixed reality and automotive manufacturing. Dr. Upadhyay is also a renowned author, His books on Workshop Practice (2001) and Manufacturing Science (2004) were highly appreciated by student’s community of U.P.T.U. (now A.K.T.U.) Lucknow.