Supplier selection can be regarded as a classic multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) problem. To a great extent, experts’ evaluations play a decisive role in the decision-making process. There will inevitable exist a variety of indefinite factors, which result from imprecision, uncertainty, and fuzziness due to the subjective judgment of human beings. As an effective tool to express uncertain information, the theory of D numbers performs better in comparison to other existing methods. In addition to that, analytic network process (ANP) method is applied more broadly for its advantages of flexibility, rationality and creditability than analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method. In this study, the D-ANP methodology is proposed to apply in the field of supplier selection, which is the extension of the traditional ANP method using D numbers. The validity of the presented methodology is illustrated by an application for supplier selection.

供应商的选择可以视为经典的多标准决策（MCDM）问题。在很大程度上，专家的评估在决策过程中起着决定性的作用。不可避免地会存在各种不确定因素，这些不确定因素是由于人类的主观判断引起的不精确，不确定性和模糊性。作为表达不确定信息的有效工具，D数论比其他现有方法有更好的表现。除此之外，与层次分析法相比，分析网络过程（ANP）方法由于具有灵活性，合理性和可信度等优点而得到了更广泛的应用。在这项研究中，提出了D-ANP方法应用于供应商选择领域，这是使用D数的传统ANP方法的扩展。