Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Analytic Network Process for Modelling a Third-party Logistics (3PL) Company

Abstract

The Fuzzy Analytic Network Process (ANP) is generally used for solving multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problems by considering the pairwise comparison between criteria/sub-criteria, and inner/outer dependencies among criteria. Linguistic expressions are used for experts' judgements, and these judgements are imprecise and vague. Hence, incorporating fuzziness with multi-criteria decision making techniques is as advanced approach as fuzzy AHP/ANP. Additionally, type-2 fuzzy sets are modelled with vagueness considering the fuzziness of a membership function. Although fuzzy AHP/ANP methods are widely used for MCDM problems, few studies are available in the literature with type-2 fuzzy AHP. Therefore, the type-2 fuzzy ANP method is first introduced in this paper with interval type-2 fuzzy sets. The main goal of this paper was to develop a new approach for the interval type-2 fuzzy ANP method for modelling MCDM problems by integrating ANP and interval type-2 fuzzy sets. 3PL company selection problems were modelled with an interval type-2 fuzzy ANP method with BOCR main criteria.