Fuzzy multi-attribute selection among transportation companies using axiomatic design and analytic hierarchy process

The basic concept in axiomatic design (AD) is the existence of design axioms. First of these axioms is the independence axiom and the second one is the information axiom. Information axiom proposes the selection of the best alternative that has minimum information. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is another multi-attribute method which is a decision-making method for selecting the best among a set of alternatives, given some criteria. The method has been extensively applied, especially in large-scale problems where many criteria must be considered and where the evaluation of alternatives is mostly subjective. Multi-attribute transportation company selection is a very important activity for effective supply chain. Selection of the best company under determined criteria (such as cost, time, damage/loss, flexibility and documentation ability) using both multi-attribute AD and AHP will be realized in this study. The fuzzy multi-attribute AD approach is also developed and it is compared by one of fuzzy AHP methods in the literature. The selection process has been accomplished by aiding a software that includes crisp AD and fuzzy AD. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.