Supplier selection using ANP and ELECTRE II in interval 2-tuple linguistic environment

In supply chain management, supplier selection can be treated as a type of hierarchical multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problems since it involves various criteria and hierarchical structure among criteria often exists. This paper investigates a kind of MCDM problems with two-level criteria and develops a novel hybrid method integrating TL-ANP (2-tuple linguistic analytic network process) and IT-ELECTRE II (interval 2-tuple Elimination and Choice Translating Reality II). Considering interactions among criteria, a TL-ANP approach, in which comparison matrices are consistent 2-tuple linguistic preference relations, is put forward to determine weights of criteria and sub-criteria. To deal with the case of criteria being not compensated, an IT-ELECTRE II approach is proposed. In this approach, ratings of alternatives on sub-criteria are represented as interval 2-tuple linguistic variables. A possible degree and a likelihood-based preference degree are respectively defined, followed by concordance, discordance and indifferent sets. Afterwards, concordance and discordance indices are identified and applied to establish net concordance and net discordance indices. Further, comprehensive dominant values of alternatives are obtained to rank alternatives. Thereby, a novel hybrid method is presented for MCDM with two-level criteria under interval 2-tuple linguistic environment. At length, a real case of supplier selection is examined and comparison analyses are conducted to illustrate the application and superiority of the proposed method.