Development of a fuzzy decision support system for commodity acquisition using fuzzy analytic network process

Commodity acquisition is one of the most critical tasks in a firm especially for an accountancy department. Because of imprecise and uncertain product requirements, firm accountants have to make their best effort at this stage. Determining the most critical criteria for commodity acquisition process is a vital means for a firm to balance its limited budget. Therefore, firms have used different methods to cope with this time-consuming and mentally intensive process. This study develops a fuzzy analytic network process model which may help firm accountants in this process. Results derived from a data sample are presented to exemplify the established model. Briefly, this paper proposes an intelligent approach to vendor selection through a fuzzy ANP which takes into consideration quantitative and qualitative elements in evaluating vendor alternatives. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.