Open Access

ARTICLE

Two-Stage Fuzzy MCDM for Green Supplier Selection in Steel Industry

Chia-Nan Wang, Thi-Ly Nguyen^*, Thanh-Tuan Dang

Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung, 80778, Taiwan

* Corresponding Author: Thi-Ly Nguyen. Email:

Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing 2022, 33(2), 1245-1260. https://doi.org/10.32604/iasc.2022.024548

Received 21 October 2021; Accepted 08 December 2021; Issue published 08 February 2022

Abstract

Steel is one of the most powerful industries globally, and the associated products have a tremendous impact on nurturing a sustainable society. Considering environmental concerns within this industry's supply chain is highly successful in saving both energy and natural resources and lowering greenhouse gas emissions. In light of this, sustainable suppliers are considered input partners who play a specific role in the chain of business operations of every enterprise, maintaining them to achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction and thus gain more market share. Supplier selection can be characterized as a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem under a vague and uncertain environment. In this paper, a hybrid model of fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (FTOPSIS) is suggested to determine the most potent green supplier of steel manufacturing in Vietnam based on a complete set of five main criteria (price, quality, delivery, service, environment) through literature review and experts’ responses. The significance of each criterion is measured by experts’ judgments in linguistic terms, which can be expressed in triangular fuzzy numbers using the FAHP model. Then, the FTOPIS model is deployed to rank alternatives. A case study of Vietnam's top 10 steel manufacturers is implemented to exhibit the model's effectiveness. From FAHP findings, “lead time”, “warranty”, “defect rate”, “supply capacity”, and “product price” were recognized as the most impactful criteria. As for the ranking of sustainable suppliers, “Hoa Phat Group Joint-stock company”, “Hoa Sen Group”, and “Pomina Steel Corporation” are the top three optimal suppliers. In dealing with qualitative data and input uncertainties in the supplier evaluation and selection problem, this paper can suggest more possible solutions and provide significant materials in similar outsourcing selection problems and applications of relevant industries.

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Keywords

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