Ranking Solutions to Overcome Barriers to the Adoption of Knowledge Management in the Supply Chain Considering a Combined Fuzzy Decision-Making Approach (Case Study: SAPCO Company)

Dispersed nature of supply chain and the subsequent dispersion of the knowledge that exists within these areas indicate the necessity of the use of knowledge management in organizations. The organizations may face many challenges if applying knowledge management strategies as well and the secret behind the organizations’ survival lays in their ability to both identify and solve these challenges. The main objective of this research is ranking the solutions to overcome barriers to the adoption of knowledge management in SAPCO supply chain. Library research method, field studies through questionnaires and experts’ viewpoints were used to collect the data. The expert sample consisting of 12 managers and senior experts of SAPCO were selected. Fuzzy decision-making methods in combination with ANP based on DEMATEL (DANP) and Fuzzy VIKOR methods were used to analyse the data. Fuzzy DEMANTEL findings showed that in adoption of knowledge management in the supply chain and in providing solutions to overcome the existing barriers, the most influential barriers are “individual” and “technological” barriers. The results of DANP fuzzy method showed that the sub-category of “Low Data and Information Security” within organizations has the highest priority among the barriers. Using Fuzzy VIKOR, the highest priority among the solutions belongs to the designation of an “Outsourcing Strategy” to improve knowledge integration in the supply chain. In supply chain, the sub-category of “Low Data and Information Security” that is among “technological barriers” is caused by “individual barriers” and that is the exact reason why it seems necessary for managers and decision makers to pay more attention to “individual barriers”. It is suggested, by this research, that managers design some outsourcing strategies in order to both improve the situation and eliminate the aforesaid barriers.