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Supplier/partner selection in agile supply chain: Application of vague set as a decision making tool

Chhabi Ram Matawale (Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela, India)
Saurav Datta (Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela, India)
S.S. Mahapatra (Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela, India)

Benchmarking: An International Journal

ISSN: 1463-5771

Article publication date: 3 May 2016

1568

Abstract

Purpose

The concept of agile supply chain (ASC) has become increasingly important as means of achieving a competitive edge in turbulent business environments. An ASC is a dynamic alliance of member enterprises, the adaptation of which is likely to introduce velocity, responsiveness and flexibility into the manufacturing system. In ASC management, supplier/partner selection is a key strategic concern; influenced by various agility-related criteria/attributes. Therefore, evaluation and selection of potential supplier in an ASC has become an important multi-criteria decision-making problem. The purpose of this paper is to report, a supplier selection procedure (module) in the context of ASC.

Design/methodology/approach

During supplier selection, subjectivity of evaluation information (human judgment) often creates conflict and bears some kind of uncertainty. To overcome this, the present work attempts to explore vague set theory to deal with uncertainties in the supplier selection decision-making process. Since, vague sets can provide more accurate information as compared to fuzzy sets. It considers true membership function as well as false membership function which give more superior results for uncertain information. In this procedure, first, linguistic variables have been used to assess appropriateness rating (performance extent) as well as priority weights for individual quantitative or qualitative criterions. Second, the concept of degree of similarity and probability of vague sets has been used to determine appropriate ranking order of the potential supplier alternatives.

Findings

A case empirical example has been provided. It has been proved that the methodology would be fruitful in considering different evaluation criterion (indices); may be contradicting in nature like beneficial and cost criterions. The application of vague set theory has also been proved as a better option to work under uncertain (fuzzy) decision-making environment in comparison to fuzzy set theory.

Originality/value

The application of vague set theory in multi-criteria group decision making has been reported in literature to a limited extent. Application of vague set as a decision-making tool in agile supplier selection appears relative new and unexplored work area. The work has got remarkable managerial implications.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Authors gratefully acknowledge the support rendered by Professor A. Gunasekaran, Editor-In-Chief, Benchmarking, An International Journal. Special thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable constructive comments and suggestions to prepare the paper a good contributor.

Citation

Matawale, C.R., Datta, S. and Mahapatra, S.S. (2016), "Supplier/partner selection in agile supply chain: Application of vague set as a decision making tool", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 866-892. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-03-2014-0020

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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