Design of an intelligent decision support system for global outsourcing decisions in the apparel industry

Abstract

Global outsourcing can be defined as assigning a specific business component to a global supplier. While global outsourcing enhances the capability of the enterprise, it also facilitates flexible enterprise structures. Many factors need to be considered simultaneously for global outsourcing decisions, and purchasing managers need a structured method of using these criteria in their decision-making. The scope of this study was to develop a fuzzy logic-based global outsourcing decision support system to evaluate the make or buy decision in the apparel industry. A fuzzy logic-based decision support system is constructed due to the similarity between fuzzy logic and human decision-making systems. The proposed approach decreases the dependency of the decision-making process on the decision-maker, establishing an effective system that can easily be applicable to most of the apparel industry.