Sustainable supplier selection by a new decision model based on interval-valued fuzzy sets and possibilistic statistical reference point systems under uncertainty

Evaluating and selecting appropriate sustainable supplier is regarded as a significant decision that plays a main role to successfully manage the sustainable supply chain. This study introduces a novel interval-valued fuzzy group decision model for evaluating sustainability performance of suppliers in the sustainable supply chain management (S-SCM). For this purpose, values of two high possibilisic mean and low possibilistic standard deviations are presented to provide new separation measures matrixes. Then, new interval-valued fuzzy indexes are proposed based on concepts of fuzzy possibilistic statistical reference point system. In addition, evaluation criteria from sustainable development dimensions are considered along with the conventional criteria for comprehensive assessment approach. Steps of the proposed interval-valued fuzzy group decision model are implemented to a case study in the supply chain for the sustainable supplier selection problem. The computational results of the presented model are compared with two recent fuzzy decision methods from the related literature. The model can assist supply chain experts or decision-makers to systematically determine preference order of sustainable supplier candidates under uncertain conditions.