Modeling supplier selection in the era of Industry 4.0

Abstract

Purpose The problem of evaluating potential suppliers has always been based on finding an optimal tradeoff between supplier’s performance consistently meeting firms’ needs and acceptable cost. The purpose of this paper is to propose a hybrid multi-criteria decision framework to quantify this qualitative judgment and reduce ambiguity in selection of suppliers in the era of Industry 4.0. Design/methodology/approach A hybrid intuitionistic fuzzy entropy weight-based multi-criteria decision model with TOPSIS is proposed. The authors make use of the intuitionistic fuzzy weighted approach operator for aggregating individual decision maker’s opinions regarding each alternative over every criterion. Additionally, the authors employ the concept of Shannon’s entropy to calculate the criteria weights. Findings Results obtained on the basis of the proposed hybrid methodology are analyzed against two more cases wherein the authors try to showcase the relevance of using IFS and entropy-based decision framework and find out the uniqueness of the proposed framework in supplier selection process. Practical implications The proposed model is apposite to solve management problem of supplier selection in two ways: aggregating individual decision maker’s opinion for each of the predefined criteria along with individual decision maker’s importance and ranking the suppliers based on both positive and negative ideal solutions using TOPSIS. Originality/value A robust framework incorporates not only suppliers’ performance but also provides weightage to key decision makers. Especially in the context of MCDMs wherein both qualitative and quantitative data is evaluated simultaneously, the proposed framework is unique in its practical implementation of reducing ambiguity in the supplier selection process.

Application of Industry 4.0 in the Procurement Processes of Supply Chains: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Moreover, BDA can predict the need of buyers for a single product according to the product characteristics which can enhance the procurement progress and regulate the number of supplies [98]. Decision support systems that use BDA can be applied to the supplier selection problems to assess and select the potential suppliers measuring the degree of satisfiability [118]. Particularly, this progress becomes important in the case of emergency products such as medicines [98].…”

Significance of operational capabilities of suppliers on the front-end decision making in apparel product innovation in Sri Lanka

“…However, during the recent past, apparel industry experienced challenges owing to the changing customer demand for environmental sustainable, good health and ethical products (Kozlowski et al, 2016;Shen et al, 2012). In the era of Industry 4, the unprecedented growth of social media interaction and selfie culture has increased customers' perception toward personalization and customization of products (Bertola and Teunissen, 2018;Sachdeva et al, 2019). In addition, the customer expectations for "smarter products" in which "fashion" and "tech" are merged together is gradually growing high with the Industry 4 paradigm (Sachdeva et al, 2019).…”

“…In the era of Industry 4, the unprecedented growth of social media interaction and selfie culture has increased customers' perception toward personalization and customization of products (Bertola and Teunissen, 2018;Sachdeva et al, 2019). In addition, the customer expectations for "smarter products" in which "fashion" and "tech" are merged together is gradually growing high with the Industry 4 paradigm (Sachdeva et al, 2019). These changing customer demands have had a depressing effect on the survival and future of the industry worldwide and insists the apparel manufacturers to make strong efforts and heavy investments on fashion forward innovative products (Crawford, 2016;Suh et al, 2010).…”

“…That is because, the suppliers possess the capacity to pinpoint and respond to product-and process-related problems effectively and efficiently with high-tech material manufacturing techniques, processes and several technologies (Bertola and Teunissen, 2018;Jap, 1999;Walter, 2016). Accordingly, operational capabilities of suppliers can be one of the considerable factors when selecting them to participate in the activities at the front-end of innovation for quick responsiveness to the fast-changing environment that come with Industry 4 concept (Azadegan and Dooley, 2010;Larsson, 2018;Pirzadeh et al, 2013;Sachdeva et al, 2019).…”

Selecting a Green, Agile and Industry 4.0 Supplier With the Fuzzy-Swara-Bwm Integrated Method

“…Supply chain processes using Industry 4.0 technologies not only increase well known evaluation measures such as delivery speed, quality of service etc , but also increases business performances in dimensions such as environmental, social and societal (Dossou and Nachidi 2017). Selection of suppliers suitable for the Industry 4.0 era ensures the development of an effective relationship; this situation increases supply chain performance (Sachdeva et al 2019). It is very important that suppliers support the Industry 4.0 transformation not only in their own internal processes, but also in the integration with all businesses and organizations in the supply chain.…”