Using a Modified Extension of Mixed Fuzzy and Crisp Axiomatic Design Method in Vendor Selection for Supply Chain

Vendor selection is dominantly considered to be a Multi Attribute Decision Making (MADM) problem, since the decision maker needs to evaluate suppliers simultaneously in different and even contrastive evaluation criteria. One shortcoming of MADM methods is that they only compare alternatives with each other, and there is no comparison with the requirements of the buying company. A very efficient method to overcome this pitfall is axiomatic design (AD) technique. However, different versions of this technique also have some shortcomings. After identifying major vendor selection attributes, this paper tries to utilize a modified extension of AD in both fuzzy and crisp versions to solve supplier selection problem. Since evaluation in each attribute requires data in both fuzzy and crisp formats, a mixed approach of fuzzy and crisp AD are employed. Finally, in order to ensure the efficacy of the proposed approach, it has been implemented in a case study and the results have been compared with those from Linear Assignment Method (LAM).