Title: A triple bottom line multi-criteria decision making framework for supplier selection

Authors: Zahra Ebrahim Qazvini; Mohammad Reza Maleki

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Eyvanekey, Semnan, Iran ' Department of Industrial Engineering, Golpayegan College of Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Golpayegan 87717-67498, Iran

Abstract: When it comes to the controversy over the environmental and social issues and the rising public awareness, the main pressure is highly imposed on companies by the statesmen and their beneficiaries to go for sustainability. Such environmental and social concerns have competitively directed companies to a point that they feel obliged to place emphasis on green and social items in their procedures. In doing so, the selection of sustainable circular suppliers for the purpose of collaboration is regarded among the critical dimensions of environmental and social affairs. Therefore, this paper attempts to develop a hybrid framework based on fuzzy best-worst method (BWM) and fuzzy decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) for selecting the sustainable supplier in a circular supply chain. In the proposed framework, the weights of criteria and their sub-criteria are calculated using fuzzy BWM and the interdependencies among the criteria are determined by fuzzy DEMATEL. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed framework is assessed using expert knowledge in an automotive parts manufacturing industry and five suppliers of this industry are ranked. The results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

Keywords: sustainable supplier selection; circular economy; multi-criteria decision making methods; fuzzy theory.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2022.121922

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2022 Vol.21 No.2, pp.144 - 160

Received: 26 Feb 2021
Accepted: 01 Apr 2021
Published online: 07 Apr 2022 *

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