Comparison and evaluation of multi-criteria supplier selection approaches: A case study

Supplier selection problem has a major regard in terms of the performance of supply chain of an organization. Several various approaches were proposed, including the analytic hierarchy process, fuzzy analytic hierarchy process, and fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). However, no comparative researches of these three approaches related to the supplier selection problem have been carried out. Therefore, this article proposes a methodology to evaluate the selected approaches. The evaluation was conducted based on the following factors: agility during the decision process, computational complexity, number of criteria and alternative suppliers, and adequacy in supporting a group decision. The methodology is implemented in X company. The results show that each approach is convenient to the supplier evaluation and selection problem, particularly toward the support of group decision-making and uncertainty modeling. In terms of computational complexity, analytic hierarchy process performs better than fuzzy TOPSIS and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process. Moreover, the fuzzy TOPSIS approach is better suited to the supplier evaluation and selection in terms of agility during the decision process, the number of criteria and alternative suppliers, and the adequacy in supporting a group decision.