Green Supplier Selection for Process Industries Using Weighted Grey Incidence Decision Model

Abstract

Proper supplier selection to meet production demand is a major aspect of all manufacturing and process industries. Green supplier selection has been one of the most critical factors for environmental protection on account of increasing consumption levels and for sustainable development as well. This paper aims at developing an applicable methodology for green supplier selection for the process industry. In this study, both economic and environmental criteria are considered and a comprehensive weighted grey incidence decision approach for green supplier evaluation and selection in a process industry is proposed. First, an overall green supplier selection index system for process industries is considered; then a weighted grey incidence decision-making model with improved grey incidence coefficients and weighted degree of grey incidence is provided. Improved grey incidence coefficients are defined using transformation sequences of the initial data. To eliminate the ill effects from the use of equal weights, the maximum entropy method is used to determine the weights of the improved grey incidence coefficients. An application example is proposed with the data collected for the chemical processing industry, which provides acceptable results in determining the better supplier. In the end appendix, some theory regarding the weights for grey incidence coefficients is proposed. The empirical results indicate that the model is of great practical value for green supplier selection in the process industry.