A Fuzzy Multi Criteria Approach for Evaluating Sustainability Performance of Third – Party Reverse Logistics Providers

Abstract : Due to the complexity and specificity of reverse logistics system, some organizations outsource all or part of the reverse logistics process to third –party provider (3PRLP). The selection of the most efficient 3PRLP is a crucial task in which it is important to take into account environmental and social criteria as well as economic criteria owing to economic interests, stakeholder pressures, and environmental legislations. The tie between all three aspects of sustainability in 3PRLP selection problem has been almost ignored. This research work deals with this issue and develops a new integrated approach for selecting the best sustainable 3PRLP. A hybrid multi-criteria making decision model is structured to assign the priority weights of decision criteria using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and to get the final ranking of providers using fuzzy preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation (F-PROMETHEE). A numerical example is also presented to illustrate the proposed approach.