A hesitant fuzzy linguistic terms set-based AHP-TOPSIS approach to evaluate ERP software packages

Abstract

Purpose In this paper, two popular multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods with hesitant fuzzy logic approach; hesitant fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (hesitant F-AHP) and hesitant fuzzy the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (HF-TOPSIS) are integrated as HF-AHP-TOPSIS to evaluating a set of enterprise resource planning (ERP) alternatives and rank them by weight to reach to the ultimate one that satisfies the needs and expectations of a company. Design/methodology/approach Selecting the best ERP software package among the rising number of the options in market has been a critical problem for most companies for a long time because of the reason that an improper ERP software package might lead to many issues (i.e. time loss, increased costs and a loss of market share). On the other hand, finding the best ERP alternative is a comprehensive MCDM problem in the presence of a set of alternatives and several potentially competing quantitative and qualitative criteria. Findings In this integrated approach, the hesitant F-AHP is used to determine the criteria weights, as the hesitant F-TOPSIS is utilized to rank ERP package alternatives. The proposed approach was also validated in a numerical example that has five ERP package alternatives and 12 criteria by three decision-makers in order to show its applicability to potential readers and practitioners. Research limitations/implications If the number of the alternatives and criteria are dramatically increased beyond reasonable numbers, the reaching to final solution will be so difficult because of the great deal of fuzzy based calculations. Therefore, the number of criteria and alternatives should be at reasonable numbers. Practical implications The proposed approach was also validated in a illustrated example with the five ERP package options and 12 criteria by the three decision-makers in order to show its applicability to potential readers and practitioners. Originality/value Furthermore, in literature, to the best of our knowledge, the authors did not come cross any work that integrates the HF-AHP with the HF-TOPSIS for ERP software package selection problem.