A two-level groups consensus reaching process for selecting suppliers of complex equipment under uncertain environment

Abstract

With the development of complexity in complex equipment, the selection of suppliers referred to several groups. How to select the suppliers for the complex equipment under several groups becomes an important topic. To solve the problem, a two-level consensus reaching process is designed to select the suppliers of the complex equipment in uncertain environments. First, considering the fuzzy environment of selection, the cloud model, which could reflect the fuzziness and randomness, is used to present the uncertain preferences of the decision-makers. Then, considering the negotiation and interaction of two groups, the bi-level consensus reaching process is established to present the master-slave features of complex equipment. Third, to solve the proposed bi-level model, the improved artificial bee colony is proposed, which adopts the gray wolf algorithm’ searching mechanism and levy flying method. The adopted strategies could enhance the searching power of artificial bee colony. Finally, a case study is used to verify the advantages of our study.