A Sustainable and Resilient Supplier Selection in Industry 5.0 Era: An Integrated Fuzzy Multicriteria Decision‐Making Approach

ABSTRACT

The selection of sustainable suppliers is a critical multicriteria decision‐making (MCDM) problem. In the era of Industry 5.0, supplier selection is no longer limited to economic criteria such as cost, quality, and delivery performance. In addition to conventional economic factors, it must also prioritize environmental, social, ethical, and human‐centric dimensions to ensure a resilient and sustainable supply chain. As a result, supplier selection is becoming a complex and heterogeneous aspect of manufacturing and supply chain management that includes a number of interdependent and often conflicting criteria. To effectively address these challenges, this research adopts an integrated fuzzy multicriteria decision‐making (MCDM) framework that combines the Fuzzy Best‐Worst Method (BWM) with the Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). A total of twenty‐three evaluation criteria were identified, encompassing economic, social, environmental, ethical, and human‐centric dimensions, which were further organized into four overarching categories. The Fuzzy BWM is applied to systematically determine the relative importance of the criteria, while the Fuzzy TOPSIS is employed to prioritize the suppliers by measuring their relative proximity to the ideal alternative, thereby accounting for the inherent uncertainty in expert evaluations. Our findings indicate that resilience, sustainability, and Industry 5.0 together represent nearly half of the overall weight, underscoring their substantial impact on supplier ranking. The approach is verified by expert input and tested for robustness with sensitivity analysis. The study enhances supplier selection using fuzzy MCDM methods and incorporates Industry 5.0‐based criteria. The study offers actionable insights for practitioners seeking to align supplier evaluation with sustainability, resilience, and human‐centric innovation, and lays a foundation for future empirical studies with larger expert panels.