identifying the criteria to evaluate and rank the suppliers by using fuzzy topsis technique: case study of pabas protein food industries

food industries as one of the most important industries in the country are an urgent need to supply raw materials at the macro and micro levels. so one of the main sections requiring serious study is supply chain management and suppliers issues in food industries. the purpose of this study is to identify the criteria to evaluate and rank the suppliers by using fuzzy topsis technique in pabas protein food industries. this research is an applied-descriptive and cross-sectional study conducted in winter 2015. the researchers have reviewed the previous studies to identify these criteria to assess the suppliers. at the end, delphi technique is used to get and sum up the results. the saturation point has been reached after implementing the technique for 4 times. by identifying the evaluation criteria, fuzzy topsis technique is used to rank suppliers. the population contains pabas protein food industries and 5 directors having sufficient information selected as sample size. the findings suggest 6 criteria considered as the most important criterion in ranking the suppliers including quality, timely delivery, price, risk, suppliers’ technology and support. also, according to the results obtained by ranking the suppliers, it can be concluded that karimi meat and poultry distribution company has the best position and province meat and poultry cooperative the worst respectively.