Comparison of ANFIS and FAHP-FGP methods for supplier selection

Abstract

Purpose – In the contemporary global market, supplier selection represents a crucial process for enhancing firms’ competitiveness. This is a multi-criteria decision-making problem that involves consideration of multiple criteria. Therefore this requires reliable methods to select the best suppliers. The purpose of this paper is to examine and propose appropriate method for selecting suppliers. Design/methodology/approach – ANFIS and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process-fuzzy goal programming (FAHP-FGP) are new methods for evaluating and selecting the best suppliers. These methods are used in this study for evaluating suppliers of dairy industries and the results obtained from methods are compared by performance measures such as Mean Squared Error, Root Mean Squared Error, Normalized Root Men Squared Error, Mean Absolute Error, Normalized Root Men Squared Error, Minimum Absolute Error and R2. Findings – The results indicate that the ANFIS method provides better performance compared to the FAHP-FGP method in terms of the selected suppliers scoring higher in all the performance measures. Practical implications – The proposed method could help companies select the best supplier, by avoiding the influence of personal judgment. Originality/value – This study uses the well-structured method of the fuzzy Delphi in order to determine the supplier evaluation criteria as well as the most recent ANFIS and FAHP-FGP methods for supplier selection. In addition, unlike most other studies, it performs the selection process among all available suppliers.