International Journal of Managing Value and Supply Chains (IJMVSC) Vol.4, No.

3, September 2013
DOI: 10.5121/ijmvsc.2013.4302 11

A FUZZY AHP APPROACH FOR SUPPLIER
SELECTION PROBLEM: A CASE STUDY IN A
GEARMOTOR COMPANY

Mustafa Batuhan AYHAN
1

Department of Industrial Engineering, Marmara University, Istanbul, TURKEY

ABSTRACT:

Supplier selection is one of the most important functions of a purchasing department. Since by deciding the
best supplier, companies can save material costs and increase competitive advantage. However this
decision becomes complicated in case of multiple suppliers, multiple conflicting criteria, and imprecise
parameters. In addition the uncertainty and vagueness of the experts opinion is the prominent
characteristic of the problem. Therefore an extensively used multi criteria decision making tool Fuzzy AHP
can be utilized as an approach for supplier selection problem. This paper reveals the application of Fuzzy
AHP in a gear motor company determining the best supplier with respect to selected criteria. The
contribution of this study is not only the application of the Fuzzy AHP methodology for supplier selection
problem, but also releasing a comprehensive literature review of multi criteria decision making problems.
In addition by stating the steps of Fuzzy AHP clearly and numerically, this study can be a guide of the
methodology to be implemented to other multiple criteria decision making problems.

Keywords:

Supplier Selection, Fuzzy AHP, Multi Criteria Decision Making

1. INTRODUCTION

Supplier selection, which includes multi criteria and multiple conflicting objectives, can be
defined as the process of finding the right suppliers with the right quality at the right price, at the
right time, and in the right quantities. It is noted that, manufacturers spend more than 60% of its
total sales on purchased items [1]. In addition, their purchases of goods and services constitute up
to 70% of product cost [2]. Therefore, selecting the right supplier significantly reduces
purchasing costs, improves competitiveness in the market and enhances end user satisfaction [3].
Since this selection process mainly involves the evaluation of different criteria and various
supplier attributes, it can be considered as a multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) problem
[4]. Based on several criteria and alternatives to be considered, various decision making methods
have been proposed to provide a solution to this problem [5].

Basically there are two types of supplier selection problems [6]. In single sourcing type, one
supplier can satisfy all the buyers needs. In the multiple sourcing type, no supplier can satisfy all
the buyers requirements. Hence the management wants to split order quantities among different
suppliers [7].

As a pioneer in the supplier selection problem, Dickson [8] identified 23 different criteria for
selecting suppliers, including quality, delivery, performance history, warranties, price, technical
capability, and financial position [9]. With a thorough literature survey, Weber, et al. [10]
reviewed 74 different articles by classifying into three categories; linear weighting methods,
mathematical programming models, and statistical approaches. Following Weber et al. [10], De
International Journal of Managing Value and Supply Chains (IJMVSC) Vol.4, No. 3, September 2013
12
Boer et al. [11], identified four stages for supplier selection including; definition of the problem,
formulation of criteria, qualification, and final selection respectively [12].

According to one of the recent classifications made by Sanayei et al. [13], there are six classes.
These are multi attribute decision making techniques (Analytic Hierarchy Process- AHP, Analytic
Network Process- ANP, Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution-
TOPSIS), mathematical programming (Linear Programming- LP, Goal Programming- GP or
Mixed Integer Programming- MIP), probabilistic approaches, intelligent approaches (neural
networks, expert systems), hybrid approaches (AHP-LP, ANP-MIP) and others.

This study is mapped as; the literature is reviewed according to the different criteria and methods
used for the supplier selection problem in the second part. Part 3 explains the Fuzzy AHP method
in detail which is utilized to solve the supplier selection problem of a manufacturing firm
elaborated as a case study in the fourth part. Part 5 presents the conclusion and directs for further
steps of this study with the references following.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

As mentioned previously there are comprehensive literature reviews performed before such as
Dickson [8], Weber et al. [10], De Boer et al. [11] and Sanayei et al. [13]. However, in this part,
at first, the literature will be reviewed according to the selection criteria and then the
methodologies used for supplier selection problem will be explained mainly based on a previous
study performed by Ayhan [14].

Many studies have been performed by using different criteria starting from the Dicksons 23
criteria [8]. Cheraghi et al. [15] updated Dicksons criteria with 13 more and stated that as the
pace of market globalization quickens, the number of criteria to be considered will increase [16].
As a brief of all criteria that have appeared in literature since 1966, quality, price, and delivery
performances are suggested as the most important selection criteria [4].

When the methodologies used for solving supplier selection problem are reviewed, it is observed
that, various multi criteria decision making methods are implemented, which can be grouped into
three broad categories [17].

1) Value Measurement Models: AHP and multi attribute utility theory (MAUT) are the best
known method in this group.
2) Goal, Aspiration, and Reference Models: Goal programming and TOPSIS are the most
important methods that belong to the group.
3) Outranking Methods: ELECTRE and PROMETHEE are two main families of methods in
this group.

AHP, which was first developed by Saaty [18], integrates experts opinions and evaluation scores
into a simple elementary hierarchy system by decomposing complicated problems from higher
hierarchies to lower ones. Yahya and Kingsman [19] are one of the first known researchers to use
AHP to determine priorities in selecting suppliers. Similarly Analytic Network Process (ANP) is
also a multi attribute approach for decision making that allows the transformation of qualitative
values to quantitative ones. Since AHP is a special case of ANP and it does not contain feedback
loops among the factors, ANP is used to determine supplier selection for the longer terms [3].

However since the uncertainty and vagueness of the experts opinion is the prominent
characteristic of the problem, this impreciseness of humans judgments can be handled through
the fuzzy sets theory developed by Zadeh [20]. Fuzzy AHP method [21], [22], [23] systematically
solves the selection problem that uses the concepts of fuzzy set theory and hierarchical structure
analysis. Basically, Fuzzy AHP method represents the elaboration of a standard AHP method into
fuzzy domain by using fuzzy numbers for calculating instead of real numbers [24]. On the other
International Journal of Managing Value and Supply Chains (IJMVSC) Vol.4, No. 3, September 2013
13
hand, since ANP deals only crisp comparison ratios, uncertain human judgments can be dealt
with Fuzzy ANP, in which the weights are simpler to calculate than for conventional ANP [3].
In case of many pair wise comparisons, ANP, AHP, FAHP, or FANP becomes burdensome to
cope with. Instead TOPSIS, which is a widely accepted multi attribute decision making tool can
be used [25]. The concept of TOPSIS is that the most preferred alternative should not only have
the shortest distance from the positive ideal solution, but should also be farthest from the negative
ideal solution [17]. Chen et al. [26] extended the concept of TOPSIS to fuzzy environments by
using fuzzy linguistic values. This fuzzy TOPSIS method fits human thinking under actual
environment.

Furthermore ELECTRE (Elimination et Choice Translating Reality), which was first introduced
by Benayoun et al. [27], concerns the concordance, discordance and out ranking concepts
originating from real world applications. ELECTRE methods have been applied to problems in
many areas including energy [28], environment management [29], finance [30], project selection
[31], and decision analysis [32]. Details and the derivatives of ELECTRE method can be found in
the literature [33].

In addition, the PROMETHEE method (Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment
Evaluations) is one of the most recent MCDA methods that was developed by Brans [34] and
further extended by Vincke and Brans [35]. PROMETHEE is an outranking method for a finite
set of alternative actions to be ranked and selected among criteria, which are often conflicting.
PROMETHEE is also a quite simple ranking method in conception and application compared
with the other methods for multi-criteria analysis [36]. Since the main focus of this paper is only
limited to application of Fuzzy AHP, a comprehensive literature review on methodologies and
applications of PROMETHEE can be found in the literature [37].

Although there are many applications of F-AHP in various fields including; personnel selection
[38], weapon selection [39], energy alternatives selection [40], job selection [41] and
performance evaluation systems [42], [43] only the recent Fuzzy AHP applications for supplier
selection problems will be elaborated in forthcoming paragraphs.

In 2010, a Fuzzy AHP method is used for supplier selection in electronic market places [44].
According to their two phase methodology, at the first phase, initial screening of the suppliers
through the enforcement of hard constraints on the selection criteria is performed. In the second
phase, final supplier evaluation is performed through the application of a modified variant of
Fuzzy AHP. This methodology facilitates an easier elicitation of user preferences through the
reduction of necessary user input (i.e. pair wise comparisons) and reduces computational
complexity.

In 2011, Fuzzy AHP approach is used for supplier selection in a washing machine company [45].
First they determine the criteria providing the most customer satisfaction and design the hierarchy
structure including the main attributes and sub-attributes for supplier selection. The weights of the
attributes and alternatives are calculated using pair wise comparison matrices.

In 2012, a combination of fuzzy AHP and fuzzy objective linear programming is used to select
the best supplier to develop a low carbon supply chain [46]. At first, Fuzzy AHP is used to
determine weights of predetermined criteria, which are cost, quality, rejection percentage, late
delivery percentage, green house gas emission and demand. Then, by the help of fuzzy objective
linear programming, the best supplier is determined.

In 2013, an interactive solution approach is proposed for multiple objective supplier selection
problems with Fuzzy AHP [16]. Their methodology includes three objectives; minimizing total
monetary cost, maximizing total quality and maximizing service level. By the provided
interactivity, the decision maker has the opportunity to incorporate his preferences during the
iterations of the optimization process.
International Journal of Managing Value and Supply Chains (IJMVSC) Vol.4, No. 3, September 2013
14

Based on comprehensive literature review, considering multi criteria structure of the supplier
selection problem and the vagueness in real environment, fuzzy AHP is thought to be a suitable
and simple enough for selecting the best supplier. In the next section the details of Fuzzy AHP is
given in detail.

3. FUZZY ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS (F-AHP)

Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (F-AHP) embeds the fuzzy theory to basic Analytic Hierarchy
Process (AHP), which was developed by Saaty [18]. AHP is a widely used decision making tool
in various multi-criteria decision making problems. It takes the pair-wise comparisons of different
alternatives with respective to various criteria and provides a decision support tool for multi
criteria decision problems. In a general AHP model, the objective is in the first level, the criteria
and sub criteria are in the second and third levels respectively. Finally the alternatives are found
in the fourth level [45].

Since basic AHP does not include vagueness for personal judgments, it has been improved by
benefiting from fuzzy logic approach. In F-AHP, the pair wise comparisons of both criteria and
the alternatives are performed through the linguistic variables, which are represented by
triangular numbers [45]. One of the first fuzzy AHP applications was performed by van
Laarhoven and Pedrycz [47]. They defined the triangular membership functions for the pair wise
comparisons. Afterwards, Buckley [48] has contributed to the subject by determining the fuzzy
priorities of comparison ratios having triangular membership functions. Chang [49] also
introduced a new method related with the usage of triangular numbers in pair-wise comparisons.
Although there are some more techniques embedded in F-AHP, within the scope of this study,
Buckleys methods [48] is implemented to determine the relative importance weights for both the
criteria and the alternatives. The steps of the procedure are as follows:

Step 1: Decision Maker compares the criteria or alternatives via linguistic terms shown in Table
1.

Table 1: Linguistic terms and the corresponding triangular fuzzy numbers

Saaty scale Definition Fuzzy Triangular Scale
1 Equally important (Eq. Imp.) (1, 1, 1)
3 Weakly important (W. Imp.) (2, 3, 4)
5 Fairly important (F. Imp.) (4, 5, 6)
7 Strongly important (S. Imp.) (6, 7, 8)
9 Absolutely important (A. Imp.) (9, 9, 9)
2
4
6
8
The intermittent values between two
adjacent scales
(1, 2, 3)
(3, 4, 5)
(5, 6, 7)
(7, 8, 9)

According to the corresponding triangular fuzzy numbers of these linguistic terms, for example if
the decision maker states Criterion 1 (C1) is Weakly Important than Criterion 2 (C2), then it
International Journal of Managing Value and Supply Chains (IJMVSC) Vol.4, No. 3, September 2013
15
takes the fuzzy triangular scale as (2, 3, 4). On the contrary, in the pair wise contribution matrice
of the criteria, comparison of C2 to C1 will take the fuzzy triangular scale as (1/4, 1/3, 1/2).

The pair wise contribution matrice is shown in Eq.1, where

indicates the k
th
decision makers
preference of i
th
criterion over j
th
criterion, via fuzzy triangular numbers. Here, tilde represents
the triangular number demonstration and for the example case,

represents the first decision
makers preference of first criterion over second criterion, and equals to,

.


(1)



Step 2: If there is more than one decision maker, preferences of each decision maker (

) are
averaged and (

) is calculated as in the Eq. 2.

] (3)

Step 4: According to Buckley [48], the geometric mean of fuzzy comparison values of each
criterion is calculated as shown in Eq. 4. Here,

still represents triangular values.

\
|
=
[
=
, i=1, 2,...,n (4)
Step 5: The fuzzy weights of each criterion can be found with Eq. 5, by incorporating next 3 sub
steps.

Step 5a: Find the vector summation of each

.

Step 5b: Find the (-1) power of summation vector. Replace the fuzzy triangular number, to make
it in an increasing order.

Step 5c: To find the fuzzy weight of criterion i (

, multiply each

with this reverse vector.

=
=
1
~
~
(
(
(
(
(

=
k
nn
k
n
k
n
k
n
k
k
n
k k
k
d d d
d d
d d d
A
~
...
~ ~
... ... ... ...
~
... ...
~
~
...
~ ~
~
2 1
2 21
1 12 11
International Journal of Managing Value and Supply Chains (IJMVSC) Vol.4, No. 3, September 2013
16
Step 6: Since

are still fuzzy triangular numbers, they need to de-fuzzified by Centre of area
method proposed by Chou and Chang [50], via applying the equation 6.

3
i i i
i
uw mw lw
M
+ +
=
(6)
Step 7: M
i
is a non fuzzy number. But it needs to be normalized by following Eq. 7.

(7)

These 7 steps are performed to find the normalized weights of both criteria and the alternatives.
Then by multiplying each alternative weight with related criteria, the scores for each alternative is
calculated. According to these results, the alternative with the highest score is suggested to the
decision maker. In order to make the methodology clear and see its applicability, a real case study
in a gear motor company is revealed in the next section.

4. APPLICATION IN A GEARMOTOR COMPANY

The Fuzzy AHP methodology is applied in a gear motor company which produces frequency
inverters and decentralized Drive Engineering motors in Turkey. In fact, previously a study has
been performed to find the best supplier for this company by Fuzzy TOPSIS method, the
technical details of the firm can be found in the literature [14]. In order to keep the business
confidentiality, the name of the company and the alternative suppliers are preserved. Base on the
previous study, bear ring, which is the most frequently used raw material, taken into account to
determine the best supplier among 3 alternative suppliers and regarding 5 criteria. The main
frame of the supplier selection for the related company can be represented as following Figure 1.
Here, both the criteria and the alternative weights should be calculated. Therefore, these two parts
will be analyzed separately.

Figure 1: The hierarchy of the criteria and the alternatives


Selecting Best
Supplier
Quality
A B C
Origin
A B C
Cost
A B C
Delivery
A B C
After
Sales
A B C
International Journal of Managing Value and Supply Chains (IJMVSC) Vol.4, No. 3, September 2013
17
4.1 Determining Weights of Criteria

In order to determine the criteria and evaluate the alternatives for the supplier selection process, a
meeting was performed with both the production manager and purchasing manager. According to
their preferences, the averaged pair wise comparison of the criteria is represented by following
Table 2.

Table 2: Pair Wise Comparisons of Criteria

Q # A. Imp.
(9, 9, 9)

S. Imp.
(6, 7, 8)
F. Imp.
(4, 5, 6)
W. Imp.
(2, 3, 4)
CRITERIO
N

Eq.
Imp.
(1, 1, 1)
CRITERION

W. Imp.
(2, 3, 4)
F. Imp.
(4, 5, 6)
S. Imp.
(6, 7, 8)
A. Imp.
(9, 9, 9)
1 QUALITY

ORIGIN


2 QUALITY COST
3 QUALITY DELIVERY
4 QUALITY

AFTER
SALES

5 ORIGIN

COST
6 ORIGIN

DELIVERY
7 ORIGIN

AFTER
SALES

8 COST

DELIVERY
9 COST

AFTER
SALES

10 DELIVERY AFTER
SALES


According to Table 2, pair wise comparison matrice is formed as Table 3;

Table 3: Comparison matrice for criteria

CRITERIA Quality Origin Cost Delivery After Sales
Quality (1,1,1) (1,1,1) (4,5,6) (6,7,8) (4,5,6)
Origin (1,1,1) (1,1,1) (4,5,6) (6,7,8) (6,7,8)
Cost (1/6,1/5,1/4) (1/6,1/5,1/4) (1,1,1) (1/4,1/3,1/2) (2,3,4)
Delivery (1/8,1/7,1/6) (1/8,1/7,1/6) (2,3,4) (1,1,1) (1/6,1/5,1/4)
After Sales (1/6,1/5,1/4) (1/8,1/7,1/6) (1/4,1/3,1/2) (4,5,6) (1,1,1)


International Journal of Managing Value and Supply Chains (IJMVSC) Vol.4, No. 3, September 2013
18
After completing the first three steps of the methodology, at the fourth step, the geometric mean
of fuzzy comparison values of each criterion is calculated by Eq. 4. For example,

-geometric
mean of fuzzy comparison values of Quality criterion is calculated as Eq. 8;

n
n
j
ij i
d r
/ 1
1
~
~
|
|
.
|

\
|
=
[
=
*

)+
(8)

Hence, the geometric means of fuzzy comparison values of all criteria are shown in Table 4. In
addition, the total values and the reverse values are also presented. In the last row of Table 4,
since the fuzzy triangular number should be in increasing order, the order of the numbers is
changed.

Table 4: Geometric means of fuzzy comparison values

CRITERIA

Quality 2.49 2.81 3.10
Origin 2.70 3.00 3.29
Cost 0.43 0.53 0.66
Delivery 0.35 0.41 0.49
After Sales 0.46 0.54 0.66
Total 6.43 7.30 8.20
Reverse (power of -1) 0.16 0.14 0.12
Increasing Order 0.12 0.14 0.16


In the fifth step, the fuzzy weight of Quality criterion (

is found by the help of Eq. 5 and

(9)

Hence the relative fuzzy weights of each criterion are given in Table 5;

Table 5: Relative fuzzy weights of each criterion

CRITERIA

Quality 0.304 0.385 0.483
Origin 0.330 0.412 0.511
Cost 0.052 0.072 0.103
Delivery 0.043 0.057 0.076
After Sales 0.056 0.075 0.103


International Journal of Managing Value and Supply Chains (IJMVSC) Vol.4, No. 3, September 2013
19
In the sixth step, the relative non-fuzzy weight of each criterion (M
i
) is calculated by taking the
average of fuzzy numbers for each criterion. In the seventh step, by using non fuzzy M
i
s, the
normalized weights of each criterion are calculated and tabulated in Table 6.

Table 6: Averaged and normalized relative weights of criteria

CRITERIA M
i
N
i

Quality 0.391 0.383
Origin 0.418 0.409
Cost 0.075 0.074
Delivery 0.058 0.057
After Sales 0.078 0.076

4.2 Determining Weights of Alternatives with respect to Criteria

After achieving the normalized non-fuzzy relative weights for criteria, the same methodology is
applied to find the respective values for alternatives. But now, the alternatives should be pair wise
compared with respect to each criterion particularly. That means, this analysis should be repeated
for 5 more times for each criterion. However, it will be burdensome to explain for each 5 of them;
only Quality criterion will be handled.

Pair wise comparison of alternatives with respect to Quality criterion is interviewed and the
following Table 7 is achieved.

Table 7: Pair Wise Comparisons of Alternatives with respect to Quality Criteria

Q # A.
Imp.
(9,9,9)

S.
Imp.
(6,7,8)
F.
Imp.
(4,5,6)
W.
Imp.
(2,3,4)
ALTERNATVES

Eq. Imp.
(1,1,1)
ALTERNATVES

W. Imp.
(2,3,4)
F.
Imp.
(4,5,6)
S.
Imp.
(6,7,8)
A.
Imp.
(9,9,9)
1 A1

A2


2 A1

A3


3 A2

A3



According to Table 7; pair wise comparison matrice is formed as Table 8;

Table 8: Comparison matrice of alternatives with respect to Quality criterion

ALTERNATIVES A1 A2 A3
A1 (1,1,1) (1/6,1/5,1/4) (1/9,1/9,1/9)
A2 (4,5,6) (1,1,1) (1/4,1/3,1/2)
A3 (9,9,9) (2,3,4) (1,1,1)

International Journal of Managing Value and Supply Chains (IJMVSC) Vol.4, No. 3, September 2013
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Similar to criterion calculation methodology, the geometric means of fuzzy comparison values
(

) and relative fuzzy weights of alternatives for each criterion (

are tabulated in Table 9.

) and fuzzy weights (

of alternatives with respective to

A1 0.265 0.281 0.303 0.052 0.063 0.078
A2 1.000 1.186 1.442 0.198 0.265 0.371
A3 2.621 3.000 3.302 0.519 0.672 0.850
Total 3.885 4.467 5.047
Reverse (power of -
1)
0.257 0.224 0.198
Increasing Order 0.198 0.224 0.257

In the last step; the non fuzzy M
i
and normalized N
i
values are obtained by using centre of area
method and shown in Table 10.

Table 10: Averaged and normalized relative weights of each alternative with respect to
Quality criterion

ALTERNATIVES M
i
N
i

A1 0.064 0.063
A2 0.278 0.272
A3 0.680 0.665

Based on these explanations, the normalized non-fuzzy relative weights of each alternative for
each criterion are found and tabulated in Table 11.

Table 11: Normalized non-fuzzy relative weights of each alternative for each criterion
ALTERNATIVES Quality Origin Cost Delivery After Sales
A1 0.063 0.425 0.629 0.149 0.629
A2 0.272 0.425 0.107 0.784 0.107
A3 0.665 0.151 0.263 0.067 0.263

By using Table 6 and Table 11, individual scores of each alternative for each criterion are
presented in Table 12.

Table 12: Aggregated results for each alternative according to each criterion
CRITERIA Scores of Alternatives with respect to related Criterion
Weights A1 A2 A3
Quality 0.383 0.063 0.272 0.665
Origin 0.409 0.425 0.425 0.151
International Journal of Managing Value and Supply Chains (IJMVSC) Vol.4, No. 3, September 2013
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Cost 0.074 0.629 0.107 0.263
Delivery 0.057 0.149 0.784 0.067
After Sales 0.076 0.629 0.107 0.263
Total 0.301 0.339 0.360

Depending on this result, Alternative 3 has the largest total score. Therefore, it is suggested as the
best supplier among 3 of them, with respect to 5 criteria and the fuzzy preferences of decision
makers.

When this result is compared with the previous study utilizing Fuzzy TOPSIS method to the same
case study, the Alternative 3 again outperforms the others (Ayhan, 2013). A1 and A2 result
approximately the same values and can be thought as the second best alternatives. However, in
this study A2 significantly outperforms A3 and can be thought as the second best supplier.

5. CONCLUSION

Depending on various criteria, supplier selection is one of the most important tasks for firms.
Since most of these criteria conflict each other, the alternative suppliers should be inspected
effectively. Therefore some techniques are developed for this aim. Although there are some more
techniques as; TOPSIS, ELECTRE, PROMETHEE, DEMATEL, ANP, etc., in this study
Analytical Hierarchy Process technique is used empowered with fuzzy approach. Since the
decision makers preferences depend on both tangible and intangible criteria, these vague
linguistic variables should be represented by Fuzzy Set Theory. Hence Fuzzy AHP model is
utilized to solve the supplier selection problem of a manufacturing company, which should
determine the best supplier among 3 alternatives. These alternative suppliers are inspected with
respect to 5 criteria namely; Quality, Origin of the raw material, Cost, Delivery Time, and After
Sales Services. As the result of the case study it is seen that the third supplier outperforms the
others.

In further studies, as stated before, other models such as Fuzzy ANP or ELECTRE can be applied
for the same problem and the results can be compared. In addition, hybrid models combining
different methodologies incorporating the strong sides of each can be performed to solve this
problem. Furthermore, for more complex problems such as multi sourcing problems, in which no
supplier can satisfy all the buyers requirements, mathematical programming models can be
utilized. By using linear programming or goal programming techniques, the decision maker can
split order quantities among different suppliers. However since the problem handled in this study,
is a single sourcing type, the complicated models are not required to be performed. In conclusion,
there are many different types of supplier selection problems to be dealt regarding the supply
chain management; several methods can be used for each various type of problem.

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