Applying fuzzy linguistic quantifier to select supply chain partners at different phases of product life cycle

Owing to rapidly growing global competition, enterprises are increasingly focusing on their core competencies. The focal company faces the challenge of creating alliances with more suppliers to create outsourcing synergy and provide heterogeneous products for customers. This study proposes a fuzzy multiple attribute decision making (FMADM) method based on the fuzzy linguistic quantifier. An attempt is made to ensure that the evaluation results satisfy the current product competition strategies, and also improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the entire supply chain. The fuzzy concept is applied to both the ordinal and cardinal information. Furthermore, the fuzzy linguistic quantifier guided order-weighted aggregation (FLQG-OWA) operator can be used to satisfy the enterprise product development strategy based on different phases of product life cycle. r 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.