The selection of face mask as a personal protective equipment under the spherical fuzzy environment considering technical and material properties

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine which criteria should be taken into account while choosing face masks for pandemic times and to what extent their effects are. Design/methodology/approach: Nine face mask alternatives were evaluated based on the assessments of their performance with respect to twelve attributes. Seven experts were asked to evaluate the mask alternatives and the influences among attributes. In gathering expert judgments, spherical fuzzy number-based linguistic terms were utilized in the study to provide a more comprehensive representation domain to them. Findings: According to the results, the most important attributes are found as material type, cost and bacteria–virus protection level. The best face mask is N95, which is followed by respirators and surgical masks. Research limitations/implications: The implication of the research is to evaluate face masks in terms of criteria such as physical, performance, protection and cost to decide on what basis they were selected as a personal protective equipment (PPE) based on expert assessments. This is useful in selection of the right face mask with optimum performance and provides guidance to the general public and profession specific groups for this purpose. The face mask companies might be also benefitted from the implications of the present study in their design and research and development (R&D) operations. Originality/value: The preference ranking of the face mask alternatives has not been studied in detail yet in the literature. Focusing on this issue, the present study provides a comprehensive assessment of the selection criteria of face masks in the pandemic era.