Fuzzy Kano – VIKOR Integrated Approach for Supplier Selection – A Case Study

In the present days, meeting the customers' expectations is the lifeblood of any manufacturing firm. To produce products as desired by the customers, the firms have to procure right raw material from the right supplier. In fact, supplier identification and selection is one of the key activities performed by purchasing group of a firm to ensure maximum value to the firm. While taking decision on selecting raw material supplier, it is foreseeable to consider various qualitative and quantitative conflicting factors. Because of the lack of precise and exact information about the suppliers against these factors, the supplier selection problem becomes complex. In order to address the complexity involved in the supplier selection problem, a methodology has been proposed in this paper by integrating Fuzzy Kano model analysis and VIKOR (technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution) technique. To categorize and prioritize the supplier selection attributes Fuzzy Kano model analysis is employed. The VIKOR resolves the uncertainty while selecting the best supplier among the suppliers of a firm. The proposed methodology resolves the ambiguity during the identification of supplier selected attributes as well as a selection of suppliers. A case study has been presented in this paper to demonstrate the proposed methodology.