Fabric procurement planning and evaluating in apparel global supply chain: An Integrated modified VIKOR with fuzzy-random data and nonlinear programming

This paper presents a global supplier selection model for the textile and clothing industry using a fuzzy multi-criteria group decision making approach. Then, the order quantity of each supplier is determined by a mathematical programming model. In the first step, a group fuzzy analysis hierarchical process approach is used to obtain the overall weight of the criteria and sub-criteria and then modified VIKOR is developed in order to calculate the vendor rating. In doing so, a modified VIKOR method with fuzzy-random data is extended due to the existence of both qualitative and quantitative criteria. The qualitative criteria are considered by fuzzy linguistic modeling and quantitative criteria from random data are formulated in a stochastic environment (based on historical data of suppliers). In the second step, a nonlinear programming model is developed to to determine the purchasing quantities from suppliers with multi-sourcing strategy. Finally, using a numerical study, the deployment of the above model is done in the clothing industry and crucial parameters are discovered by sensitivity analysis. Our findings indicate the critical role of customer’s demand and assigned capacity of suppliers in procurement plan.