Environmental performance evaluation of suppliers: A hybrid fuzzy multi-criteria decision approach

Increasing environmental problems enforce companies to be more environmental responsible. A company’s environmental performance is not only related to the company’s inner environmental efforts, but also it is affected by the suppliers’ environmental performance and image. As a stakeholder of the company, a supplier with bad environmental image affects badly the company’s environmental image. Also, raw materials and semi-finished products supplied from out of the company recourses- suppliers- affects the products environmental features such as life cycle, re-usability, re-manufacturability, hazardous substances, etc. Considering these direct and indirect effects, managers should also consider environmental performances of their suppliers in their supplier evaluation process. In this paper, a methodology for the evaluation of suppliers’ environmental performances is proposed. In this methodology, a hybrid Fuzzy-Analytic Network Process and Fuzzy-Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment Evaluations approach is utilized. Additionally, a numerical example is given to foster the better understanding of the methodology and the obtained results are analyzed with sensitivity analyses.     

A multi-criteria decision-making approach for evaluating carbon performance of suppliers in the electronics industry

Although interest in addressing environmental perspectives in supplier management is rising, incorporating the issue of carbon management into supplier selection in green supply chain is still considerably scarce. This study presents a model for evaluating carbon performance of suppliers by utilizing multiple-criteria decision-making. Through literature reviews and expert opinions, 13 criteria within carbon performance are identified for evaluating suppliers. Subsequently, the analytic network process is utilized to determine the relative weights of each criterion. Finally, the VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje technique is employed to evaluate carbon performance of suppliers and compromise solution under each of the evaluation criteria. An illustrative example in an electronics company is presented to demonstrate how to select the most appropriate supplier in accordance with carbon management. To be effective in mitigating carbon risk across the supply chain, the proposed hybrid model can help firms evaluate carbon performance of suppliers for facilitating low carbon supply chain.     

Landfill site selection by decision-making tools based on fuzzy multi-attribute decision-making method

Landfill site selection is a complex and time-consuming process, which requires evaluation of several factors where many different attributes are taken into account. Decision makers always have some difficulties in making the right decision in the multiple attribute environments. After identifying candidate sites, these sites should be ranked using decision-making methods. This study applies Chang’s fuzzy AHP-based multiple attribute decision-making (MADM) method for selection of the best site of landfills based on a set of decision criteria. The Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) was designed to make pairwise comparisons of selected criteria by domain experts for assigning weights to the decision criteria. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used to make pairwise comparisons and assign weights to the decision criteria. It is easier for a decision maker to describe a value for an alternative by using linguistic terms and fuzzy numbers. In the fuzzy-based AHP method, the rating of each alternative was described using the expression of triangular fuzzy membership functions. Once the global weights of the criteria is calculated by AHP, they are incorporated into the decision matrices composed by decision maker and passed to fuzzy-AHP method which is used to determine preference order of siting alternatives. In this study, a computer program based on the Chang’s fuzzy method was also developed in MATLAB environment for ranking and selecting the landfill site. As an example of the proposed methodology, four different hypothetical areas were chosen and implemented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the program. By using this program, the precision was improved in comparison with traditional methods and computational time required for ranking and selecting the suitable landfill site was significantly reduced.     

Evaluating centralized return centers in a reverse logistics network: An integrated fuzzy multi-criteria decision approach

In this paper, the centralized return centers location evaluation problem in a reverse logistics network is investigated. This problem is solved via an integrated analytic network process-fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution approach. Analytic network process allows us to evaluate criteria preferences while considering interdependence between them. On the other hand, technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution decreases the number of computational steps compared to simple analytic network process evaluation. An important characteristic of the centralized return centers location evaluation problem, vagueness, is adapted to the methodology via the usage of fuzzy numbers in the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution approach. Finally, a numerical example is given to demonstrate the usefulness of the methodology. The results indicate that, this integrated multi-criteria decision making methodology is suitable for the decision making problems that needs considering multiple criteria conflicting each other. Also, by using this methodology, the interdependences between the criteria may be considered for these kinds of problems in a flexible and systematic manner.     

Decision making under uncertainty using a qualitative TOPSIS method for selecting sustainable energy alternatives

Multi-criteria decision-making methods support decision makers in all stages of the decision-making process by providing useful data. However, criteria are not always certain as uncertainty is a feature of the real world. MCDM methods under uncertainty and fuzzy systems are accepted as suitable techniques in conflicting problems that cannot be represented by numerical values, in particular in energy analysis and planning. In this paper, a modified TOPSIS method for multi-criteria group decision-making with qualitative linguistic labels is proposed. This method addresses uncertainty considering different levels of precision. Each decision maker’s judgment on the performance of alternatives with respect to each criterion is expressed by qualitative linguistic labels. The new method takes into account linguistic data provided by the decision makers without any previous aggregation. Decision maker judgments are incorporated into the proposed method to generate a complete ranking of alternatives. An application in energy planning is presented as an illustrative case example in which energy policy alternatives are ranked. Seven energy alternatives under nine criteria were evaluated according to the opinion of three environmental and energy experts. The weights of the criteria are determined by fuzzy AHP, and the alternatives are ranked using qualitative TOPSIS. The proposed approach is compared with a modified fuzzy TOPSIS method, showing the advantages of the proposed approach when dealing with linguistic assessments to model uncertainty and imprecision. Although the new approach requires less cognitive effort to decision makers, it yields similar results.     

Minimization of environmental risk of landfill site using fuzzy logic, analytical hierarchy process, and weighted linear combination methodology in a geographic information system environment

This paper presents a GIS-based multi-criteria site selection for municipal solid waste landfilling in Ariana Region, Tunisia. Based on the regional characteristics, literature related to disposal sites and waste management, local expert, data availability and assessments via questionnaires, 15 constraints, and 5 factors were built in the hierarchical structure for landfill suitability by multi-criteria evaluation. The factors are divided into environmental and socio-economic groups. The methodology is used for preliminary assessment of the 20-year most useful lifetime suitable landfilling sites by combining fuzzy set theory, weighted linear combination (WLC) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in a GIS environment. The criteria standardization is undertaken by application of different fuzzy membership functions. The fuzzy membership functions shape and their control points are chosen through assessment of expert opinion. The weightings of each selection criterion are assigned depending on the relative importance using the AHP methodology. The WLC approach is applied for alternative landfill sites prioritization. The results of this study showed five potential candidate sites, which are generated when the environmental factors are valued higher than socio-economic factors. These sites are ranked in descending order using the ELECTRE III method. However, the final decision will require further detailed geotechnical and hydrogeological analyses toward the protection of groundwater as well as surface water.     

高速铁路无砟轨道地基泥岩膨胀性分类分级研究

红层泥岩是一种典型侏罗系沉积岩,其含有微量黏土矿物,易遇水软化、失水崩解,具有一定膨胀性,是引起兰新高速铁路路基持续上拱变形的一个重要因素,故重新判定该种土体膨胀性对高速铁路无砟轨道设计和施工具有重要意义。为此,选取等效蒙脱石含量、阳离子交换量、自由膨胀率和液限为泥岩膨胀性判别指标,通过兰新高速铁路上拱地段大量钻孔实测资料,提出了泥岩膨胀等级分级标准,采用改进层次分析法、基尼系数法和直觉模糊理论确定了判别指标组合权重,基于逼近理想解排序法(TOPSIS法)建立了泥岩膨胀性直觉模糊综合评价模型。结果表明：直觉模糊综合评价模型将泥岩膨胀性进行了定量化,克服了同一试样不同指标属于不同等级判别缺陷;室内膨胀量试验验证了膨胀等级分级标准和直觉模糊综合评价模型对兰新高铁地基泥岩适用性和准确性。研究成果对地基红层泥岩高速铁路路基长期持续上拱变形风险评估和工程控制措施提供技术支撑。     

Selection of wastewater treatment process based on the analytical hierarchy process and fuzzy analytical hierarchy process methods

This paper presents an application of the analytical hierarchy process and fuzzy analytical hierarchy process methods for selecting the best wastewater treatment process. The analytical hierarchy process is one of the best ways for deciding among the complex criteria structure in different levels, and the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process is a synthetic extension of the classical method when the fuzziness of the decision makers are considered. After reviewing aerobic treatment processes operated in Iran’s industrial estates and determining the main criteria used for treatment process evaluation, they are arranged in a hierarchy structure. Selection of the best wastewater treatment process is a multi-criteria decision making problem. Conventional methods are inadequate for dealing with the imprecise or vague nature of linguistic assessment. To overcome this difficulty, the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process is proposed for dealing with the vagueness of decision makers’ judgments. The alternatives consist of extended aeration, absorption bio-oxidation, integrated fixed-film activated sludge, sequencing batch reactor, aerated lagoon. Based on the general condition of industrial estate’s wastewater treatment plants, technical/administrative, economic and environmental criteria and their sub-criteria are weighted and then criteria evaluated and priorities of alternatives have been done by analytical hierarchy process and fuzzy analytical hierarchy process methods by the use of triangular fuzzy numbers. Finally, selection of the best process and ranking of these five processes are carried out by these foregoing methods, and some sensitivity analyses are conducted to show the results’ sensitiveness to the changes of the weights of the evaluation criteria.     

Development of environmental and natural vulnerability maps for Brazilian coastal at São Sebastião in São Paulo State

In this study, environmental and natural vulnerability maps developed for a Brazilian coastal region at São Sebastião City in São Paulo State helped to address a better understanding of the ecosystem fragility. Intense anthropogenic activities take place in the site that are mainly related to the petroleum industry and involve the operation of refineries and storage/transport of gas/oil by pipelines. A Geographical Information System (GIS) allowed the maps elaboration and analysis, where the region vulnerability was classified into five indexes: very low, low, medium, high and very high. The results depicted well the most vulnerable areas in the site, which should receive special care for their preservation. They include the coastal zones, the fluvial marine plain, the mangrove and the urban area of São Sebastião City. The results reported herein also show that the approach utilized may provide the decision makers with tools to develop an integrated coastal zone management for preserving the environmental resources in São Sebastião municipality. The methodology adopted is of easy implementation and adaptation to other areas, only taking into account the decision rules fitting diverse criteria imposed by the new reality.     

Regional non-hazardous landfill site selection by integrating fuzzy logic, AHP and geographic information systems

This study presents a geographic information systems-based multi-criteria site selection of non-hazardous regional landfill in Polog Region, Macedonia. The multi-criteria decision framework integrates legal requirements and physical constraints that relate to environmental and economic concerns and builds a hierarchy model for landfill suitability. The methodology is used for preliminary assessment of the most suitable landfill sites by combining fuzzy set theory and analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The fuzzy set theory is used to standardize criteria using different fuzzy membership functions while the AHP is used to establish the relative importance of the criteria. The AHP makes pairwise comparisons of relative importance between hierarchy elements grouped by environmental and economic decision criteria. The landfill suitability is achieved by applying weighted linear combination that uses a comparison matrix to aggregate different importance scenarios associated with environmental and economic objectives. The results from the study suggested that a least suitable landfill area of 1.0% from the total is generated when environmental and economic objectives are valued equally while a most suitable landfill area of 1.8% area is generated when the economic objective is valued higher. Such results are aimed for enhancement of regional landfill site selection in the country that is compliant with modern EU standards.     

Combining geographic information system, multicriteria evaluation techniques and fuzzy logic in siting MSW landfills

This study presents a methodology for siting municipal solid waste landfills, coupling geographic information systems (GIS), fuzzy logic, and multicriteria evaluation techniques. Both exclusionary and non-exclusionary criteria are used. Factors, i.e., non-exclusionary criteria, are divided in two distinct groups which do not have the same level of trade off. The first group comprises factors related to the physical environment, which cannot be expressed in terms of monetary cost and, therefore, they do not easily trade off. The second group includes those factors related to human activities, i.e., socioeconomic factors, which can be expressed as financial cost, thus showing a high level of trade off. GIS are used for geographic data acquisition and processing. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is the multicriteria evaluation technique used, enhanced with fuzzy factor standardization. Besides assigning weights to factors through the AHP, control over the level of risk and trade off in the siting process is achieved through a second set of weights, i.e., order weights, applied to factors in each factor group, on a pixel-by-pixel basis, thus taking into account the local site characteristics. The method has been applied to Evros prefecture (NE Greece), an area of approximately 4,000 km². The siting methodology results in two intermediate suitability maps, one related to environmental and the other to socioeconomic criteria. Combination of the two intermediate maps results in the final composite suitability map for landfill siting.     

矿山环境地质问题综合评价指标体系

本指标体系把矿山环境地质问题归为三大类23项指标，提出以指标指数作为划分环境地质问题危害程度等级的依据，给出2类指标评价指数的计算方法，以及各指标相应的权重。在此基础上，用模糊数学综合评判法评定矿山环境地质问题的历史、现状及其发展趋势的影响程度。在考虑矿山区位条件和恢复治理难度的基础上，最终给出矿山环境地质问题的综合评价等级，该等级也同时反映了矿山地质环境恢复治理的优先顺序。     

多目标模糊优选模型在环境质量评价中的应用

环境质量评价属于多因子识别和排序问题。在实际应用中评价因子的基准往往难以确定 ,从而影响评价结果。针对此问题 ,提出了多目标模糊优选模型 ,它是分析多目标环境系统的一个较新的方法 ,在介绍该理论的基础上 ,建立了环境质量评价模型 ,并在吉林西部进行了应用 ,通过与其它评价方法的比较表明 ,该方法用于环境质量评价具有通用性、合理性和实用性     

农业干旱灾害风险模糊集对评价法及其应用

开展农业干旱灾害风险评估,有利于定量认识农业旱灾和科学指导防旱抗旱工作。基于集对分析原理和模糊理论建立的模糊集对评价法,兼顾了信息的多尺度特征和评价等级的模糊性,概念清晰,计算简洁。构建了由旱灾危险性子系统、旱灾暴露性子系统、灾损敏感性子系统和抗旱能力子系统组成的干旱灾害风险评估体系和评价指标。将模糊集对评价法应用于2012年安徽省亳州市农业干旱灾害风险评估,研究结果表明,建议方法是可靠的,为农业干旱灾害风险评估提供了一种新途径。     

抗震设防决策中的模糊信息处理

抗震设防决策过程中涉及到许多对整个分析过程都具有重要意义的模糊信息 ,本文提出一种结合模糊信息进行地震危险性概率分析与抗震设防决策的方法 ,介绍了用模糊集模拟模糊信息的原理 ,以及进一步处理模糊信息的区间分析顶点法。作为一例 ,这些方法结合基于泊松分布的地震烈度发生概率模型 ,应用于南京市区未来 5 0年的地震危险性与抗震设防效益分析 ,提供模糊的结论供设防决策参考。     

复杂系统模糊模式识别动态规划模型研究

将模糊识别集合算子和非结构决策分析方法引入模糊动态规划中,推导出了两种求解复杂系统多目标多阶段决策问题的方法:级别特征值最小法和阶段模糊识别递推法。这两种方法具有不同的递推方程,可以应用于不同的情况,从而形成了模糊模式识别动态规划模型。此模型可以有效地获取和集成决策者的经验知识和偏好。此模型已应用到实践中,并取得良好效果。     

Landfill site selection using integrated fuzzy logic and analytic network process (F-ANP)

Locating a suitable place to dispose the municipal solid wastes hygienically (sanitary landfill) is one of the fundamental subjects relating the environmental stability of cities and, in general, the human settlements. This final stage of solid waste management requires observance of a series of principles and criteria mainly including environmental, social, economical, and general acceptance criteria. The set of these criteria along with their sub-criteria causes some complexities in decision making for landfill site selection. Considering effective parameters and criteria, we developed an integrated fuzzy logic and analytic network process (i.e. F-ANP) to locate a suitable location for landfilling municipal solid wastes generated in Kahak Town, Qom, Iran. Our findings revealed that integration of fuzzy logic and ANP can give better idea compared with other models like AHP, fuzzy logic, and ANP (individually). Therefore, this model can be applied in site selection for landfill of other similar places.     

A rock mass classification model for caving roofs

Summary Evaluation of the caving behaviour of longwall roof rocks has thus far been based on a pot-pourri of classification systems, which ignore basic caving criteria. The paper outlines a new classification model of roof strata namely cavability using fuzzy set methodology and linguistic variables to assign ratings for individual roof beds. A microcomputer program has been developed to evaluate the decision ratings for cavability and the model applied to ten longwall case-histories from Indian coalfields. The classification model has excellent potential for being used as a standard tool for the evaluation of caving behaviour of longwall roof rocks.     

Site selection in municipal solid waste management with extended VIKOR method under fuzzy environment

Nowadays, selection of the suitable disposal site in municipal solid waste (MSW) management has become a challenge task for the municipal authorities, especially in fast-growing areas. Site selection can be viewed as a complicated multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem requiring consideration of multiple alternative solutions and conflicting quantitative and qualitative criteria. In this paper, linguistic variables, which can be expressed as trapezoidal fuzzy numbers, are used to assess the ratings and weights for the selection criteria. The ordered weighted averaging operator is utilized to transform the fuzzy decision matrix into crisp values considering the decision maker’s attitudinal character. For selecting the best site, the extended VIsekriterijumska optimizacija i KOmpromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method is applied to determine the priority ranking of alternatives. As a result, a hierarchy MCDM model based on fuzzy set theory and VIKOR method is proposed to deal with the site selection problems in the MSW management system. An empirical study in Shanghai, China, is provided and comparison with the existing approach is conducted to illustrate the applicability and benefits of the proposed method.     

石太客运专线特长隧道涌水灾害预测研究

介绍了模糊综合评判方法及其应用步骤,在分析石太客运专线特长隧道地质构造、围岩类别、降雨量、地表环境特征等因素的基础上,建立模糊综合评判矩阵对隧道涌水进行预测。结果表明,模糊综合评判方法能很好地预测隧道涌水量的大小等级。