Sustainable supplier selection: A multi-criteria intuitionistic fuzzy TOPSIS method

The concept of sustainability is becoming an essential philosophy for numerous industrial sectors because of the increase in environmental protection and social obligations awareness. A sustainable supplier selection is the first step towards this trend. It is also a challenging problem since multi-criteria group decision-making is engaged with numerous conflicting requirements in which decision makers’ knowledge is commonly imprecise and vague. This research presents an intuitionistic fuzzy TOPSIS method to select the right sustainable supplier that concerns nine criteria and thirty sub-criteria for an automotive spare parts manufacturer. The proposed approach provides an accurate sustainable ranking of suppliers and a reliable solution for sustainable sourcing decisions that is validated through a real-world case study. This paper ends with research and theoretical findings, managerial insights and directions for future research.