Using Fuzzy VIKOR to Select the Supplier

As the supply chain emerged, the industrial and service organizations began to focus on their suppliers, and as the industries and services developed, they understood that the supplier’s proposed price has not been the only criterion to cooperate; but, the problem of supplier selection (SS) has been a multiple-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem. Besides, real world problems have always been structurally complex. Therefore, due to ambiguity, high uncertainty and imprecise information, the concept of fuzzy analysis was introduced. Now, we could use imprecise (fuzzy) information as the input of a fuzzy system, and the process of the system could employ approximate induction based on fuzzy logic. In this regard, studying the literature of SS and the criteria used for this purpose, we identify the most suitable criteria. To do so, primarily we designed an appropriate questionnaire, and then we used it to gather ideas of the experts to obtain the weights of the criteria in the fuzzy environment. Afterwards, using the Fuzzy VIKOR approach, we ranked the suppliers.