Non-cooperative behavior management in group decision making by a conflict resolution process and its implementation for pharmaceutical supplier selection

With the increasing popularity of Pharmaceutical Industry 4.0, products and services provided by suppliers play a significantly important role for a pharmaceutical enterprise. To evaluate the performance of suppliers comprehensively regarding multiple criteria, it is necessary to invite inside managers from the enterprise and outside consultants with expertise to form a decision-making committee. Within this context, this study proposes a multi-attribute group decision making model for pharmaceutical supplier selection with internal and external (heterogeneous) experts. Considering the complexity of the decision making environment, we suppose that the experts use triangular fuzzy numbers to express their imprecise information. We identify two kinds of conflicts among experts, and introduce a conflict resolution process with a feedback mechanism. In the feedback mechanism, two non-cooperative behavior management approaches are introduced corresponding to the two kinds of experts. Afterwards, an algorithm for multiple-attribute group decision making with triangular fuzzy numbers and heterogeneous experts is presented. Finally, an illustrative example about pharmaceutical supplier selection is provided to verify the feasibility of the proposed method and some managerial insights are given. (c) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. The concept of Industry 4.0 was first proposed in the HANNOVER MESSE in Germany in 2011. Then, China, the USA and Japan promulgated their industrial revolution plans 17]. Industry 4.0 mainly contains four parts: Smart Factory, Internet of Services (IoS), Internet of Things (IoT), and Cyber-physical Systems 17]. These technologies are helpful for enterprises to achieve flexibility and automation, so as to reduce cost, optimize value chain, and save energy 115]. Medicine plays a critical role in the well-being and health of a society. The pharmaceutical industry is in the second lead

Automated summary

This study proposes a multi-attribute group decision making model for pharmaceutical supplier selection involving internal and external (heterogeneous) experts using triangular fuzzy numbers to address conflicts and provide a solution for pharmaceutical enterprises.