A multi-criterion partner selection problem for virtual manufacturing enterprises under uncertainty

We study a partner selection problem for virtual manufacturing enterprises facing an uncertain environment. We propose a new method of using the grey system theory to account for uncertainties in a project's start time, completion time, transportation time, as well as cost. We first develop the concepts of delivery time agreement index and cost agreement index, and then formulate a multi-objective partner selection problem that maximizes the minimum delivery time agreement index, the average delivery time agreement index and the cost agreement index. A chaotic particle swarm optimization (CPSO) algorithm is developed. Extensive computational results show that the proposed CPSO method outperforms the standard PSO in providing quality solutions more reliably.