Applying a hybrid BWM-VIKOR approach to supplier selection: a case study in the Iranian agricultural implements industry

Abstract

In today's economy, due to the importance of quality and quantity of the product, supplier selection plays a significant role in procurement planning of each factory. Agricultural implements industry is one of the industries included in this sensitivity. Thus, in this paper a supplier selection framework for this industry is considered. For this purpose, a strong approach, namely best worst method (BWM) along with a well-known MCDM technique with the name of VIKOR are employed. At first, the criteria with a view to the literature review and opinions of industry experts are identified. Afterward weights of the criteria are obtained by BWM and then candidate suppliers are ranked by using BWM and VIKOR. In order to check the quality of expert's inputs, the consistency tests are applied. Moreover, to investigate the robustness of the approach sensitivity analysis is considered. Finally, according to the obtained results, it is clear that proposed framework could be effective like as existing approaches for supplier selection problems. Also, agricultural managers implementing industries need simple methodologies to select the proper suppliers and improve their situation.