Supplier selection is regarded as the primary goal of supply chain management (SCM) because it affects its performance, productivity, pleasure, flexibility, and system speed in lockdown. A new method is proposed based on a multi-stage fuzzy sustainable supplier index (FSSI). Experts can use the triple bottom line (TBL) criteria to select the best supplier. In addition, the worst method is proposed based on trapezoidal membership and fuzzy membership functions, which can cover uncertainties and ambiguous environments. Because it collects the related criteria and sub-criteria and uses a direct fuzzy methodology, this research has impacted the SCM literature because it helps solve previous expert methods' computational difficulties. In addition, an ordered mean integration representation method has been implemented to prioritize the selection of the best supplier (SS) based on the sustainability performance of the best supplier, which improves the selection accuracy compared to the previous ranking method. This study can be used as a benchmark to determine which supplier is the best in sustainability. To provide the superiority and broad applicability of the proposed model, a practical case study was completed. On the other hand, the COVID-19 pandemic harms productivity, company performance, and selecting the best suppliers based on sustainability performance. The lockdown situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic hurts company performance and management.
Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Fuzzy best–worst method; Multiple-criteria decision-making method; Supply chain management; Sustainable supplier selection; Triple bottom line (TBL) criteria.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.