Circular intuitionistic fuzzy TOPSIS method with vague membership functions: Supplier selection application context

Abstract

The membership function of a general type-2 fuzzy set is three-dimensional in order to incorporate its vagueness through the third dimension. Similarly, Circular intuitionistic fuzzy sets (CIFSs) have been recently introduced by Atanassov (2020) as a new extension of intuitionistic fuzzy sets, which are represented by a circle representing the vagueness of the membership function. CIFSs allow decision-makers to express their judgments including this vagueness. In this study, the TOPSIS method, which is one of the most used multi-criteria decision-making methods is extended to its CIF version. The proposed CIF-TOPSIS methodology is applied to the supplier selection problem. Then, a sensitivity analysis based on criteria weights is conducted to check the robustness of the proposed approach. A comparative analysis with single-valued intuitionistic fuzzy TOPSIS method is also performed to verify the developed approach and to demonstrate its effectiveness.