Ranking of manufacturers of mechanical parts based on a fuzzy multi-criteria decision making method: A case study in Iran National Steel Industrial Group

Abstract

Considering multiple criteria in evaluating manufacturers, high number of parts, orders and manufacturers for supplying parts of machinery and equipment, selecting the right manufacturer is a serious problem in steel rolling and production factories. The use of Multi-Criteria and methods in decision-making plays an important role in the selection speed and accuracy. Because of multiple criteria in evaluating manufacturers, selecting a limited and effective number of manufacturers seems difficult, so this study aimed to rank potential suppliers in order to identify the best supplier. Decisions in the outsourcing of mechanical parts are made based on multi-criteria methods and grouped decisions. So, this article proposes a method based on the grouped fuzzy decision-making approach in order to evaluate and rank the most suitable suppliers for outsourcing activities in Iran National Steel Industrial Group. Using the proposed method, experts presented their opinions in linguistic words, a range of numbers, deterministic or fuzzy numbers. Then each supplier was ranked based on the model criteria. On this basis, the most effective criteria in selecting companies were also identified.