Application of the chosen multi-criteria decision-making methods to identify the autonomous train system supplier

This paper addresses an application of the specific methods of multi-criteria decision analysis to specify the appropriate supplier of an autonomous train in a certain production–distribution company. This company identifies three potential suppliers dealing with the development and purchase of autonomous train systems. In terms of the multi-criteria decision analysis, the WSA method, the Scoring method and the TOPSIS method were used to define a suitable compromise solution. To apply each method, individual suppliers were sorted depending on the appropriateness for the examined company based on relevance with all the identified criteria and their weights. The evaluation criteria include procurement cost, time of the whole autonomous train system project implementation, references from plants where such a technology has already been introduced, service department availability and battery charge time. Thereafter, the outcomes obtained using individual methods were compared to each other and the compromise supplier of the autonomous train system to be implemented in the selected company was determined.