A fuzzy SWARA-WASPAS based approach for determining the role of lean practices in enabling the supply chain agility

Today, the lean practices and the adoption of lean philosophy in manufacturing organizations is becoming an increasing trend, and as the nature of lean is to eliminate waste, so greatly helpful for improving an organizations overall efficiency & productivity. Along with improved efficiency with lower cost of the product, the customer demand has extended their preferences for customized product and it’s fulfilment within a time framework which is known as responsiveness or agility. So, keeping both the strategies in mind, the organizations are striving for the adoption of both lean and agile supply chains. Though it is too challenging, but successful implementation of both strategies together will definitely put the organization ahead of their competitors in the cut throat competition of the market. The innovation in this paper is that, the authors have proposed a fuzzy SWARA-WASPAS based model which helps in determining the role of lean enablers in enhancing the supply chain agility, which is a new concept of interrelating both lean & agility. The fuzzy Step-wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (fuzzy SWARA) is applied for determining the priority weightage and ranking of the 28 identified lean enablers and the fuzzy Weighted Aggregates Sum Product Assessment (fuzzy WASPAS) is applied to structure the 11 identified agile factors with the help of lean enablers. Today the fuzzy logic has become the buzz word popularly applied to solve many multi-criteria decision making problems. The focus of study is concentrated mainly in enhancing the supply chain in automobile industry sector applying optimization tools. The ranking obtained will be very useful for the decision makers to focus on the proper hierarchy and accordingly take actions for future improvements in the responsiveness of any supply chain.