The selection of 3PRLs on self-service mobile recycling machine: Interval-valued pythagorean hesitant fuzzy best-worst multi-criteria group decision-making

As the speed of mobile phone updates continues to accelerate, the self-service mobile phone recycling mode, led by third-party reverse logistics providers (3PRLs), has ushered in an important developmental era. This paper proposes a novel interval-valued Pythagorean hesitant fuzzy best-worst multi-criteria large group decision-making method to research the selection of 3PRLs. To minimize the influence of subjective factors and maximize the mathematical analysis method, some related improvements have been made to the traditional best worst method (BWM). First, in order to make an effective strategic assessment and achieve overall optimization of the organization, evaluators are grouped by the self-organized maps (SOM) method to balance the coordination ability and professional level of different groups. Next, the interval Pythagoras hesitant fuzzy set (IPHFS) is used to evaluate the criteria of 3PRLs selection. Then, according to above evaluation results, the BWM method and deviation model are combined to determine the weights of criteria. Finally, the traditional BWM is extended by ranking functions to determine the optimal 3PRL. The applicability of the proposed method is numerically demonstrated by solving a real case, and the key conclusions are that the technical factor is important to affecting the choice of 3PRLs. At the same time, the quantity and price of recycled components on End of Life (EOL) and used mobile phones also have important impacts on the selection of 3PRLs.