Title: Proposal of a supplier evaluation and ranking method based on fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS

Authors: Túlio Fígaro Ulhoa; Lauro Osiro; Rafael Henrique Palma Lima; Luiz Cesar Ribeiro Carpinetti

Addresses: Department of Production Engineering, School of Engineering of São Carlos, University of São Paulo, Brazil ' Department of Production Engineering, University of Triângulo Mineiro, Brazil ' Department of Production Engineering, Federal University of Technology – Paraná, Brazil ' Department of Production Engineering, School of Engineering of São Carlos, University of São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract: As companies increasingly focus on their core competences, the relationship with suppliers becomes more crucial. In complex supply chains, it is vital to continuously evaluate suppliers to aid the purchasing process, thus prioritising suppliers with greater performance. However, the evaluation of suppliers depends on the purchased item and requires the adoption of multiple criteria, which often are qualitative and assessed under uncertainty. This paper contributes to the field of supplier evaluation by proposing a supplier evaluation model that uses qualitative criteria to rank a set of suppliers of a given strategic item. Initially, the model uses fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to weigh the criteria and later it uses fuzzy TOPSIS to evaluate suppliers. A real application was carried out in a shoe manufacturer to evaluate leather suppliers, which enabled both the ranking of the current three suppliers and deciding on guidelines on order quantities and supply base development.

Keywords: fuzzy AHP; fuzzy TOPSIS; supplier evaluation; supplier ranking.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2021.118739

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2021 Vol.40 No.2, pp.266 - 286

Received: 19 Jun 2019
Accepted: 28 Sep 2019
Published online: 04 Nov 2021 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article