Supplier selection in the industry 4.0 era by using a fuzzy cognitive map and hesitant fuzzy linguistic VIKOR methodology

Abstract

Organizations will be increasingly concerned about maintaining their positions in today’s changing world, the high-tech era, and the emergence of innovative technologies because of the industrial revolutions. Everyone has come to believe that to survive and continue their constructive roles, they must achieve competitive advantages by working based on the trends. It is undeniable that the introduction of Industry 4.0 has had a significant impact on enterprises, organizations, and, of course, supply chains. In the meantime, selecting a supplier is one of the main strategic decisions of the organization because choosing the right supplier leads to increasing profitability, improving market competition, better accountability, enhancing product quality, and reducing costs. While the issue of supplier evaluation has been one of the interesting topics for researchers in recent decades, its development in the fourth supply chain generation needs further consideration. In this regard, current technologies in the fourth-generation industrial revolution, methods, and criteria used in previous studies based on industry 4.0 and before that are reviewed separately. By reviewing previous articles and experts’ opinions, thirteen sub-criteria considering industry 4.0 have been identified for selecting suppliers in three categories, economic, environmental, and social. The weight of each criterion has been determined using a set of fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) and considering the centrality of criteria in the concept of communication networks. To prioritize the suppliers, the hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets (HFLTS) VIKOR method has been used in hesitant fuzzy linguistic terms. Finally, a case study is introduced to illustrate the effectiveness and usefulness of our integrated methodology and prioritize its four suppliers.