Sustainable supplier selection: A novel integrated fuzzy best worst method (F-BWM) and fuzzy CoCoSo with Bonferroni (CoCoSo’B) multi-criteria model

Abstract

Abstract In sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), triple bottom line (TBL) of sustainability (economic, social, and environmental) are considered when selecting the suppliers. In this paper, the relative weights of SSCM practices are extracted by fuzzy best worst method (F-BWM) which is capable of better modeling of human thinking. Afterwards, the traditional Combined Compromise Solution (CoCoSo) method is enhanced by the integration of the normalized weighted and the normalized weighted geometric Bonferroni mean functions to select the most proper supplier in a supply chain. The integration of the Bonferroni functions into the CoCoSo method (CoCoSo’B) enables: (1) flexible decision-making respecting the interaction between decision attributes; (2) the elimination of the influence of extreme/awkward data on the values of the criterion functions, and (3) checking the robustness of the results through a variation of the parameters λ, p, and q. Testing the model on the example of sustainable supplier selection demonstrates the rationality, objectivity, flexibility, and stability of the results of the proposed model. Further, the proposed framework makes it possible to evaluate suppliers in terms of sustainability in spite of ambiguities in the decision-making process and a lack of quantitative information. Finally, a real world example of home appliance manufacturer in Serbia is discussed to verify the proposed model applicability.