Fuzzy logic in vendor rating: A comparison between a fuzzy logic system and a neural network

In the industrial environment, more stable and cooperative supply relationships require the rating and the selection of suppliers. Usually, this important and complex decision is made by experts. Due to the uncertainty and the non-linearity of the behavior of the experts involved in this decision-making process, the fuzzy logic seems particularly suitable to model a decision support system. In this paper, a fuzzy logic system is proposed to support vendor rating. Since also neural networks are able to simulate non-linear behaviors, the fuzzy logic system is compared to a neural network in order to evaluate the different system performances.