Supplier selection based on evidence theory and analytic network process

Abstract

The supplier selection is a key component of the supply chain management. Existing methods for the supplier selection are based on analytic network process. They can handle the interdependence of decision attributes; however, these methods could not guarantee an optimal solution when given vague or incomplete input data. To deal with the uncertainties of input data, we propose methods combining analytic network process with Dempster–Shafer evidence theory. We demonstrate efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method in a numerical example. We demonstrate that the proposed method is flexible and effective in dealing with the supplier selection problem.