Viable supplier selection problem based on Industry 5.0 and circular economy aspects: a hybrid decision-making approach

The importance of evaluating the supplier in today’s dynamic and competitive marketplace is undeniable. Therefore, in recent years, managers and researchers have been looking for various approaches to enhance the evaluation process of the suppliers. Therefore, this study addresses the Supplier Selection Problem (SSP) considering three crucial features namely the Circular Economy (CE), viability, and Industry 5.0 (I5.0) dimensions. Here, a novel decision-making model is developed to assess the suppliers’ performance. To do so, the stochastic fuzzy Best-Worst Method (BWM) is employed to calculate the indicator’s importance, and then, a modified approach named stochastic fuzzy Complex Proportional Assessment (COPRAS) is developed to complete the evaluation. Furthermore, the applicability of the suggested methodology is demonstrated by a real-world case study in the automotive industry. The obtained results reveal that ‘Responsiveness', ‘Robustness', ‘Reliability', ‘Cost', ‘Quality', ‘Waste Management’, ‘Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions', ‘Information systems', and ‘Job safety' are the most significant indicators of the research problem, whereas Suppliers A2 and A5 attain the most appropriate performance. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis and comparative evaluation between our methodology and the traditional ones prove its efficiency, robustness, and validity.