A Novel spherical fuzzy CRITIC method and its application to prioritization of supplier selection criteria

Linguistic terms are quite suitable to make evaluations in multiple criteria decision making problems since humans prefer them rather than sharp evaluations. When linguistic evaluations are used in the decision matrix instead of exact numerical values, fuzzy set theory can capture the vagueness in the linguistic evaluations. Ordinary fuzzy sets have been extended to many new types of fuzzy sets such as intuitionistic fuzzy sets, neutrosophic sets, spherical fuzzy sets and picture fuzzy sets. Spherical fuzzy sets are an extension of picture fuzzy sets whose squared sum of their parameters is at most equal to one. This paper develops a novel spherical fuzzy CRiteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) method and applies it for prioritizing supplier selection criteria. Supplier selection is one of the most critical aspects of any organization since any mistake in this process may cause poor supplier performance and inefficiencies in the business processes. Supplier selection is a multi-criteria decision making problem involving several conflicting criteria and alternatives. A numerical illustration of the proposed method is also given for this problem.