Title: An integrated fuzzy QFD and TOPSIS approach to enhance leanness in supply chain

Authors: A. Noorul Haq; Varma Boddu

Addresses: Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli – 620015, India ' Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli – 620015, India

Abstract: Lean principles are currently adopted in supply chain to ensure competitiveness in the global market and to meet customer requirements. This lean paradigm focuses on cost reduction using various tools and philosophies like just in time (JIT) and total quality management (TQM). To be lean, a supply chain must ensure many distinguishing lean attributes (LAs) influenced by lean enablers (LEs). In this paper, an integrated technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and quality function deployment (QFD) approach is proposed to increase the leanness of supply chain. The objective is to identify the most viable LEs to achieve the required LAs. Due to impreciseness and vagueness associated with decision-making problems, fuzzy logic is used to deal with linguistic judgments expressing relationships and correlations required by QFD. Presentation of a case study from the Indian food processing industry illustrates the proposed methodology.

Keywords: supply chain management; SCM; lean supply chains; leanness; food supply chains; quality function deployment; fuzzy QFD; fuzzy logic; fuzzy TOPSIS; food industry; lean enablers; India; food processing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBPSCM.2015.069924

International Journal of Business Performance and Supply Chain Modelling, 2015 Vol.7 No.2, pp.171 - 188

Received: 25 Jan 2014
Accepted: 07 Feb 2014

Published online: 16 Jun 2015 *

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