Analysis of Supplier Selection Methods Through Conceptual Module and Empirical Study

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Analysis of supplier selection methods through conceptual module and

empirical study
Article in International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management · January 2014

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2014.062122
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72 Int. J. Logistics Systems and Management, Vol. 18, No. 1, 2014
Analysis of supplier selection methods through

conceptual module and empirical study
H. Abdul Zubar* and P. Parthiban

Department of Production Engineering,
National Institute of Technology,
Tiruchirappalli – 620015, Tamil Nadu, India
E-mail: abdulzubar@gmail.com
E-mail: parthee_p@yahoo.com
*Corresponding author
Abstract: Supplier selection is considered as the most important step in the

course of supply chain management, which helps in reducing the costs,
improve the quality and deliver the products on time, thereby sustaining the
intense pressure in the present global competing environment. Many
researchers have done their research on supplier selection and evaluation, the
processes which determine the success of any supply chain and proposed new
ideas and methods for the same. Around 225 articles from various journals
have been reviewed. Based on the research in the previous literature, all the
papers have been classified into three categories – conceptual approach,
empirical study and analytical models. In this paper, we present a review of the
past literature on supplier selection from 134 articles which include only the
categories of conceptual approach and empirical study.
Keywords: supplier selection; conceptual approach; supplier evaluation;

supplier assessment; supply chain management; SCM.
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Zubar, H.A. and
Parthiban, P. (2014) ‘Analysis of supplier selection methods through
conceptual module and empirical study’, Int. J. Logistics Systems and
Management, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp.72–99.
Biographical notes: H. Abdul Zubar is currently a full time Research Scholar
in the Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology
(NIT), Tiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu, India. He received his Bachelor’s in
Mechanical Engineering, Master’s in Industrial Engineering from the National
Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, He has around 17 technical papers
presented and published in conferences and journals at international and
national levels. He is a life member of ISTE. His research interests are in the
broad areas of production engineering with specific interest in lean
manufacturing, decision-making, logistics and supply chain management.
P. Parthiban belongs to the Faculty of the Department of Production
Engineering, National Institute of Technology (NIT), Tiruchirappalli, India. He
received his PhD degree from the JNT University, Hyderabad, He holds a
Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s in Industrial Engineering
from the NIT, Tiruchirappalli. He has done extensive research in the areas of
multi-variate analysis and multi-criteria decision-making. He has more than 75
technical papers presented and published in conferences and journals at
international and national levels. His research interests include supply chain
management, lean manufacturing and artificial intelligence.
Copyright © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Analysis of supplier selection methods 73
1 Introduction
In a world which is continuously shrinking due to global competing environment, the

competition is on a rise and hence it has become very much necessary for any company
or a firm to reduce the costs, improve the quality and deliver the products on time to
survive and thrive in the market and thereby gain competitive advantage over others. For
these to happen, an efficient supply chain must be ensured. Supply chain is the
integration of various processes and diverse entities to deliver the final product of the
desired quantity and quality to the end consumer at the right place in the right time. The
success of the supply chain depends on the satisfaction of the end customer. The demand
of high variety of goods by the customers and the recent advances in technology made
the competition in the market very high and the competing environment global. The firms
have been forced to focus on the supply chain management (SCM) to increase the
profitability of the supply chain and thereby, that of the organisation. The objective of
any supply chain is to reduce the total cost, improve the total quality, maximise the
customer service and increase the profit.
The key to success in the market is to meet the customer’s demands in shortest time
and least cost and therefore, emphasis is on the reduction of total costs and the delivery
time. Analysis give out that the cost of the raw materials and the component parts
themselves carry around 70% of the total cost of the product (Weber et al., 1991). The
total cost will reduce considerably by reducing these costs. These costs depend on the
supplier. Hence, supplier selection becomes a very important activity in the course of the
flow of supply chain. Supply chain starts with selecting the right supplier for the raw
materials. The stage in the buying process when the intending buyer or the retailer
chooses the preferred supplier or suppliers from those qualified as suitable is known as
supplier selection. It is a strategic decision. Qualifying the suppliers ‘suitable’ depends on
the suppliers being able to provide the retailer with the right quantity of the right
product/service at the right time in the right place (Mandal and Deshmukh, 1994; Sarkis
and Talluri, 2002). The supplier must adhere to all the required criteria to satisfy the
buyer and thereby, the end customer. Thus, supplier selection process becomes a multiple
criteria decision making problem involving various criteria which may be quantitative as
well as qualitative.
In the initial days of supplier selection, only three criteria were considered to be
important – price, quality and time. Service was also considered an important factor in
the selection. But, research was done on the vendor selection process and many other
criteria evolved. Dickson (1966) summarised 23 criteria which are vital in the process of
supplier selection. Researchers from then on gave many other criteria involved in the
process of supplier selection. These well-defined criteria have been adopted in the later
technologies and methodologies since then. But, the selection criteria are ultimately
defined depending on the level of supplier-buyer relationship and integration, the
organisation’s position in the market or the competitive situation, the organisation’s
corporate strategies and strategic management decisions (Weber et al., 1991).
The activities involved in the vendor/supplier selection process are triggered with the
realisation of the need for a supplier. Determining the decision criteria and formulation of
the problem follows. A shortlist of suppliers from a large list is prepared
(pre-qualification) and from this shortlist, the final list of suppliers is selected depending
on the adherence to the preferred criteria. Supplier evaluation is the next step by
monitoring the selected suppliers by continuous assessment. Any supplier selection
74 H.A. Zubar and P. Parthiban
process can be of two types. One method is the one in which there are no restrictions on
the supplier which means one supplier can satisfy all the requirements of the price,
demand, delivery, quality, etc. This method is called single sourcing. The other method is
the one in which there are some constraints in the capacity of the supplier. Then the buyer
has to go to more than one supplier to fulfil all his requirements. This method is called
multi sourcing. In any single sourcing method, the management has to take only one
decision of which supplier is the best whereas in a multi sourcing way of supplier
selection, the management has to take two decisions on who are the best suppliers and
how much should be acquired from each of the suppliers. The order allocation decision is
critical in the supplier selection process. But, order allocation decision is more
sophisticated in a multiple supplier selection problem than in a single supplier selection
problem because the activities of order allocation in a multiple supplier selection problem
are dependent on each other. The introduction of JIT environment has emphasised on the
reduction of the number of suppliers and the criteria by which the process of supplier
selection is achieved.
A successful sourcing strategy requires a thorough understanding of a company’s
business strategy, the resources required to deliver that strategy, the market forces and the
unique risks within the company associated with implementing specific approaches.
According to Burke and Vakharia (2002), the sourcing strategy of an organisation or a
firm is characterised by three important interrelated decisions:
a criteria for establishing a supplier base
b criteria for selecting the final suppliers those who receive an order from the
organisation or the firm
c the quantity of goods to order from each selected supplier.
For the initial short listing from a large list of suppliers or establishing a supplier base,
the criteria are based on the organisation’s view of the supplier’s ability to satisfy its
requirements of quality, quantity, delivery and price. This approach arrays each supplier
in terms of objectives and based on the relative weights of each of these objectives, the
total score of the qualified supplier is evaluated. By putting a score as threshold limit, the
suppliers who achieve this point and above are selected for the final list. From the initial
short list of qualified suppliers, the final list of suppliers to whom the order must be
placed is made. Since all the suppliers conform to the requirements of quantity, quality,
service and other objectives of the organisation, cost considerations are the base of the
decision for the final list, which is the reigning practice in many industries. But, there
may be some alternate criteria imposed by the buyers to select the final suppliers. After
selecting the final suppliers, the amount of order to be placed for each supplier is
determined. The order allocation decision depends on the choice of the firm’s sourcing
strategy again. It may be a single supplier strategic sourcing or a multiple supplier
strategic sourcing. Allocation of orders or the requirements will aspire to optimise the
value of the supply chain and thereby that of the organisation. In a multi supplier
sourcing strategy, it is the collective supplier’s capabilities that will empower or hinder
the performance of any supply chain. Hence, the sourcing strategy becomes very critical
to the venture becoming triumphant.
While designing a sourcing strategy, it is very important for a firm to be clear on the
criteria that have the maximum influence on the overall performance. The supplier
selection criteria are derived as per the requirements of the proposal. They may include
commercial as well as other factors which are determined by the precise nature of the
final commodity. Effective and efficient sourcing processes of an organisation can
maximise the profits and improve the performance of the supply chain. The following
block diagram gives a view about the important sourcing related processes (Chopra and
Meindl, 2005).
Figure 1 Supply chain process
Supplier Supplier selection and Design Sourcing

collaboration Procurement
assessment contract negotiation planning
and
analysis
These steps (Figure 1) endure the company to improve the performance of its supply
chain. The supplier assessment and the supplier selection steps have been discussed in
detail earlier. Once the supplier is selected, a contract is negotiated between the buyer and
the supplier(s). It should take into account all the factors that affect the performance of
the supply chain. Design collaboration step allows the supplier and the buyer or the
manufacturer to work together while designing the components of the final product. The
next step in sourcing is procurement whose objective is to enable the orders placed and
delivered on schedule at the minimum cost. The final step is the sourcing planning and
analysis which is to analyse all the expenditure across all the suppliers and identify the
opportunity to minimise the overall costs (Chopra and Meindl, 2005).
Supplier selection is one of the key components of SCM, as companies have realised
that to truly deliver superior customer value they must focus on the entire value chain. As
such, companies control only a small part of that. A healthy buyer supplier relationship is
then one of the most potent components of superior value delivery and delighting
customers. Good supplier management starts with the selection of most effective and
efficient suppliers from a given pool. The selection criteria could include price, quality
and delivery performance among others. However, companies often grapple with the
question of selecting the right supplier. The approach to tackle this problem using data
envelopment analysis (DEA) that uses an ideal target for each selection criteria and then
identifies the best supplier available (More and Mateen, 2012).
Selecting appropriate suppliers has strategic significance for every company. The free
replicability hull (FRH) model is one of the models in DEA. In many real world
applications, data are often stochastic. A successful approach to address uncertainty in
data is to replace deterministic data via random variables, leading to chance-constrained
DEA. In this paper, a chance-constrained FRH (CCFRH) model is developed; its
deterministic equivalent, which is a non-linear programme, is also derived (Azadi and
Saen, 2012). Furthermore, it is shown that the deterministic equivalent of the CCFRH
model can be converted into a quadratic programme. In addition, sensitivity analysis of
the CCFRH model is discussed with respect to changes in parameters.
Another key factor in SCM is purchasing. It is one of the most strategic activities
involved in the supply chain. Supplier selection is an essential task within the purchasing
function. Sourcing process also comes under this purchasing function. It embodies all
activities related to the buying process from determining the need to ensuring proper
delivery. It is believed that purchasing plays an important role in strategic success of an
organisation through the appropriate selection of suppliers who support the company’s
long term strategy and competitive positioning (Ellram and Carr, 1994). The major
benefits from purchasing are considerable reduction in cost, improvement in delivery of
the product, shorter cycle time, improvement in the quality and access to product and
process technology. Purchasing determines the lead time in launching a product into the
market.
From all these factors, it is evident that the supplier selection is the paramount
important step in SCM. A vendor/supplier can either make the company or break the
company by reaching up to the customers’ demands or failing miserably in his process.
This is responsible to motivate people to research deeply on supplier evaluation and
selection problems involving multi criteria decision making (MCDM).
2 Literature review
Supplier selection is a very important component in SCM. In the present global scenario,
it becomes necessary to cut the production and variable costs to sustain and survive the
high competition. In the past, there has been lots of research done on supplier selection
process as well as SCM. There is lot of literature available about the process of supplier
selection as well as evaluation. Extensive research is done on the available literature and
is reviewed. Researchers and practitioners describe supplier selection as a number of
phenomena which determine suitable suppliers in the supply chain. In the past four
decades, the activity of supplier selection has undergone an enormous change due to high
technology advancement. It is impossible to produce low cost, high quality products
without proper suppliers in today’s competitive scenario (Weber et al., 1991). There is no
definite method for supplier selection in the earlier literature. But the retailer is provided
with some criteria to evaluate the supplier and select him. The decision making is done
on the basis of how well the supplier can cater to his needs and the requirements of his
customers. Dickson (1966) gave 23 criteria which can be used for the process of supplier
selection or evaluation. But, the criteria for selection depend on the requirements of the
firm. Supplier selection is classified into three categories in the past literature (Bei et al.,
2006; Talluri 2002).
1 empirical study, where the relationship between various attributes in supplier
selection and the effect of one over the other and on the selection process is studied
deeply
2 conceptual approach, giving the importance of supplier selection and its strategies
3 analytical models, where a model to solve the supplier selection problem and
multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem is presented.
In this paper, review of the empirical study and conceptual approaches and the review of
analytical models are continued in the next paper.
2.1 Conceptual approach

2.1.1 2000 and before
Supplier selection process is of paramount importance in any supply chain. A supply
chain is said to be successful or efficient if the right quantity and desired quality of the
final product is delivered at the right place in the right time (Mandal and Deshmukh,
1994). SCM is the link between each and every element in the manufacturing and supply
processes, starting from the raw material to the end consumer (New and Payne, 1995;
Scott and Westbrook, 1991). Organisations have realised that they cannot attain success
alone without satisfactory vendors (Handfield and Nichols, 1999). An extensive literature
review was carried out regarding the concepts of ‘supplier selection’ or ‘vendor selection’
and different criteria associated with it. Dickson (1966) gave 23 criteria used for supplier
selection based on a survey in industries. Nydick and Hill (1992) concentrated on four
important criteria in the supplier selection: quality, price, delivery and service. Some
authors studied multiple objective sourcing selection (Weber et al., 1991; Karpak
et al., 1999; Nydick and Hill, 1992). Chaudhry et al. (1993) studied about vendor
selection with price breaks. A vital function in SCM is the purchasing function. Within
the purchasing function, one of the prime responsibilities is the evaluation and selection
of suppliers (Vokurka et al., 1996). In today’s highly competitive, global operating
environment, it is impossible to produce low cost, high quality products successfully
without satisfactory suppliers (Weber et al., 1991). In the present globally competitive,
rapidly changing environment, it is necessary for the firms to formulate strategic plans
that are consistent with their investment in and use of manufacturing technology to be
successful (Tracey et al., 1999). Choi and Hartley (1996) explored supplier selection
practices across the supply chain and found out that the companies have increased the
level of out-sourcing in their strategies and are relying more heavily on their supply chain
as a source of their competitive advantage. The overall performance of the organisation
was studied and many conclusions have been made. The manufacturing department’s
overall performance in different organisations was compared and the crucial role played
by manufacturing in supporting the achievement of the overall business strategy of a
company was pointed out (Rangone, 1996). Tvorik and McGivern (1997) found out the
determinants of organisational performance and an integrative model is defined by an
organisation’s internal variables represented as economic rates of return for both
economic and organisational factors. These variables are used to examine performance
variance and their economic contribution to firm profitability. The factors responsible for
success in supplier development are extensively studied by Krause and Ellram (1997).
They noted that one of the purchasing function’s basic objectives is to maintain a network
of capable suppliers. Humphreys et al. (1998) studied the benefits of dimensional analysis
approach over the traditional assessment methods and how it can be used to measure not
only suppliers’ performance, but also the contribution to the purchasing relationship from
the buyer organisation. Purdy and Safayeni (2000) developed a framework for supplier
evaluation based on whether the supplier evaluation focuses on information from
product-based or process-based domains and whether the information acquisition mode
used is direct or indirect. In doing so, various advantages and limitations related to each
approach are identified. The total quality management in a supply chain and its impact on
the performance was deeply discussed in detail by Forker et al. (1997). Jagadeesh (1999)
gave a perspective on analysis of total quality management in India. Verma and Pullman
(1998) examined the difference between managers’ rating of the perceived importance of
different supplier attributes and their actual choice of suppliers in an experimental setting.
2.1.2 2001–2007
Selecting the right vendors reduces the purchase costs and improves the corporate
competitiveness significantly (Ghodsypour and O’Brien, 2001). Li and Rao (2005)
conceptualise, develop and validate six dimensions of SCM practice which are strategic
supplier partnership, customer relationship, information sharing, information quality,
internal lean practices and postponement. Supplier selection is a process which contains
many steps, the first starting with the realisation of the need for a supplier; determination
and formulation of the decision criteria; initial screening and drawing up a shortlist of
potential suppliers (pre-qualification); final supplier selection and finally, continuous
evaluation and assessment of the final suppliers (De Boer and Wegen, 2003). Supplier
selection procedures are divided into pre-selection, selection and the post-selection
procedures (Davidrajuh, 2003). The selection procedure is further divided into the
following stages: bidder selection, partner selection, and performance evaluation. Xu and
Li (2007) gave multiple phase suppliers sorting model based on the supplier development
orientation using multiphase selection methods and unconventional criteria combination.
The model classified selection into three phase: pre-selection, evaluation and
development. Thus, supplier selection has become a key critical strategic consideration.
In supply chain literature, the supplier selection problem is treated as an optimisation
problem that requires formulating a single objective function (Nukala and Gupta, 2007).
However, not all supplier selection criteria can be quantified, because of which, only a
few quantitative criteria are included in the problem formulation. To flourish in their
respective markets, buying firms must ensure that their suppliers’ performance,
capabilities and responsiveness equals, or surpasses that experienced by the buyer’s
competitors. The moderating effect of buyer-supplier relationships on quality practices
and performance was discussed in detail by Fynes and Voss (2002). Schurr (2007)
investigated into critical interaction episodes that fundamentally strengthen or fatally
weaken relationship development. Jammernegg and Reiner (2007) discussed the
opportunities and challenges for improving the performance of supply chain processes by
coordinated application of inventory management and capacity management. Prahinski
and Benton (2004) determined how suppliers perceive the buying firm’s supplier
evaluation communication process and its impact on suppliers’ performance. Berggren
and Bernshteyn (2007) note that organisational transparency drives company
performance. An intelligent supplier relationship management system is developed by
integrating a company’s customer relationship management system, supplier rating
system and product coding system by the case-based reasoning technique to select
preferred suppliers during the new product development process (Choy et al., 2004). An
expert system approach of supplier selection and evaluation and the importance of
supplier evaluation and selection in the buying process were given by Yigin et al. (2007)
and Altuntas et al. (2006). Cormican and Cunningham (2007) evaluated supplier
performance from a large multinational organisation and found out that reducing the
number and improving the quality of suppliers resulted in increased quality, reduced lead
time and a reduction in the number of errors and defects. Romer (2002) studied about
different partnership strategies in the purchasing function and compared the different
customer-supplier relationships from the point of view of purchasing and deals with
virtual companies in particular. It also traces the architecture of the virtual organisations
and analyses their advantages and disadvantages. Xiaobing and Qiang (2007) did
research on supplier selection tactic model for strategic purchasing. Curran (2001)
developed a tool for environmentally preferable purchasing. Outsourcing is a
management approach by which an organisation delegates some non-core functions to
specialised and efficient service providers (Franceschini et al., 2003). In the era of ‘global
market’ and ‘e-economy’, outsourcing is one of the main pillars of the new way to
conceive the relationships among companies. Kakouris et al. (2006) proposed a
framework for purchasing and outsourcing decisions together with a process model for
evaluating and assessing possible suppliers. They focused in particular on the ‘planning’
and ‘qualifying’ phases of the process which, respectively, set the criteria and prepared a
shortlist, before the final selection. Leonard and McAdam (2002) studied about the
strategic impact and implementation of total quality management. Jammernegg and
Reiner (2007) studied and discussed the opportunities and challenges for improving the
performance of supply chain processes by coordinated application of inventory
management and capacity management. Henri (2004) tried to bridge the gap between the
organisational effectiveness (OE) models developed in the field of organisational theory
and the performance measurement models presented within the management accounting
literature. Nwankwo et al. (2002) studied the scope for expert systems in supplier quality
management. Chen and Paulraj (2004) proposed a networked supply chain. This novel
perspective has created the challenge of designing and managing a network of
interdependent relationships developed and fostered through strategic collaboration. Seth
et al. (2006) extensively defined the key gaps in both the directions (forward and reverse)
that are likely to affect the service quality at different levels. These gaps may exist
between a 3PL service provider and the manufacturer, the marketing function and the
3PL service provider, etc. Kannan and Haq (2007) analysed the interactions of criteria
and sub-criteria for the selection of supplier in the built-in-order supply chain
environment.
2.1.3 2008–2012
Foster (2008) worked towards an understanding of supply chain quality management
(SCQM) and Berrah and Clivillé (2008) prepared a quantitative performance
measurement model in a buyer-supplier relationship context.
Wang and Yang (2009) worked on the supplier selection under multi-supplier
quantity discount and is treated as mixed integer problem to minimise purchasing costs.
In these models, only one criterion was used as an objective function, and other criteria
were modelled as constraints. Amid et al. (2009) studied about a fuzzy multi objective
model which has been developed for the supplier selection problem under price breaks
that depend on the sizes of order quantities. Amin and Razmi (2009) proposed a
mathematical model for a single item purchasing problem considering various discount
schemes simultaneously. Considering both qualitative and quantitative criteria in this
model and in addition, permitting various types of discount schemes by suppliers, make
this model more practical in comparison with other previous studies. Mendoza and
Ventura (2009) worked on a model that determines an optimal inventory policy that
coordinates the transfer of items between consecutive stages of the system while properly
allocating orders to selected suppliers. Amin and Razmi (2009) studied on a fuzzy
analytic network process (ANP) model to evaluate the potential suppliers and select the
best one(s) with respect to the vendor important factors. Shu and Wu (2009) examined
the supplier selection and evaluation on the basis of the quality criterion. Carrera and
Mayorga (2008) explained a fuzzy inference system as an alternative approach to handle
effectively the impreciseness and uncertainty that are normally found in supplier
selection processes. Lin et al. (2009) developed the ANP model based on discussion
among practitioners and experts, which is followed by collecting the data by using Delphi
method. Awasthi et al. (2009) explained how to identify suppliers as well as
corresponding quantities for a buyer facing stochastic demand.
Ho et al. (2010) researched on how MCDM approaches are better than the traditional
cost-based approach, and aids the researchers and decision makers in applying the
approaches effectively. Tseng et al. (2009) proposed a novel hierarchical evaluation
framework based upon:
1 MCDM analysis
2 ANP technique
3 Choquet integral.
Micheli (2008) investigated the supplier selection issue as a way to mitigate the overall
supply risk, through the proposition of a new approach which is as practical as a total cost
of ownership approach and, at the same time, a real support for the supplier selection as a
decision making issue, rather than an additional constraint for the decision maker. Saen
(2008) presented a hybrid intelligent algorithm, based on the push SCM, which uses a
fuzzy neural network and a genetic algorithm to forecast the rate of demand, determine
the material planning and select the optimal supplier. Demirtas and Üstün (2008) worked
out an integrated approach of ANP and multi objective mixed integer linear programming
(MOMILP). He et al. (2009) described a class of special chance-constrained
programming models and a genetic algorithm which is designed for the vendor selection
problem in his paper. The solution procedure is tested on randomly generated problems
and computational experience is reported. Kokangul and Susuz (2009) presented the
selection of suppliers from predetermined eight suppliers and a real-life case study
conducted for a large automotive manufacturer firm.
Zeydan et al. (2011) worked out qualitative performance evaluation by using fuzzy
analytical hierarchic process (AHP) in finding criteria weights and then fuzzy Technique
for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) in finding the ranking of
suppliers. Lin et al. (2011) proposed ERP, a decision manager can clearly realise the
strength and weakness of the purchasing operation. To establish a real-time purchasing
environment, a methodology of ANP, TOPSIS and linear programming (LP) are
effectively applied in the supplier selection process. Dalalah et al. (2011) presented a
hybrid fuzzy model for group MCDM. A modified fuzzy DEMATEL model is presented
to deal with the influential relationship between the evaluation criteria.
Khaleie et al. (2012), used intuitionistic fuzzy value (IFV) to show the decision
makers’ preferences and IFN clustering method is utilised to cluster around DMs
preferences. Intuitionistic fuzzy weighted geometric (IFWG) is applied to aggregate the
obtained clusters. Lin (2012) discussed a model that allows the incorporation of DMs
imprecise aspiration levels for allocating optimal quantity of orders to each selected
suppliers. Moreover, the model can be applied to help firms monitor suppliers so as to
avoid subjective human decisions in the future and to improve the relationships with their
selected suppliers. Environmental sustainability of a supply chain depends on the
purchasing strategy of the supply chain members. Most of the earlier models have
focused on cost, quality, lead time, etc., issues but not given enough importance to carbon
emission for supplier evaluation (Shaw et al., 2012). Vahdani et al. (2012) discussed in
their paper, a new intelligent model based on the locally linear neuro-fuzzy (LLNF) with
locally linear model tree (LOLIMOT) was proposed to predict the performance rating of
the suppliers in cosmetics industry, which had further advantages with characteristics of
higher reliability and avoid of over-fitting. Amindoust et al. (2012) introduced a fuzzy
ranking model for sustainable supplier selection in SCM.
The literature regarding the conceptual approach of supplier selection is tabulated and
given below (Table 1):
Table 1 Literature on conceptual approaches of supplier selection
S. no. Authors name Comments

1 Kokangul and This work considers the selection of suppliers from
Susuz(2009) predetermined number of suppliers and a real-life case study.
2 Altuntas et al. (2006) An application of expert system approach for supplier evaluation
and selection is proposed.
3 Amid et al. (2009) In this paper, a fuzzy multi objective model has been developed
for the supplier selection problem under price breaks that depend
on the sizes of order quantities.
4 Awasthi et al. (2009) This paper presents an approach to identify suppliers as well as
corresponding quantities for a buyer facing stochastic demand.
5 Amindoust et al. In this paper the sustainable supplier selection criteria and sub-
(2012) criteria are determined and based on those criteria and sub-
criteria a methodology is proposed onto evaluation and ranking of
a given set of suppliers.
6 Vahdani et al, (2012) The paper proposes a model which is trained by a locally linear
model tree (LOLIMOT) learning algorithm for supplier selection.
7 Berggren and Organisational transparency drives company performance.
Bernshteyn (2007)
8 Berrah and Clivillé Quantitative performance measurement model in a
(2008) buyer-supplier relationship context is proposed.
9 Chen and Paulraj Various supply chain initiatives and factors to develop key SCM
(2004) constructs conducive to advancing the field are identified and
consolidated.
10 Chen et al. (2004) This paper investigates the extent to which strategic purchasing
supports supply management capabilities, consisting of long-term
orientation, limited number of suppliers, and communication.
Strategic purchasing can engender sustainable competitive
advantage.
11 Lin et al. (2011) An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in the process of
supplier selection may result in the great savings in both costs
and man hours. In the concept of push and pull, an ERP system
acts as an efficient tool in the resource integration and profit
creation for a company.
Table 1 Literature on conceptual approaches of supplier selection (continued)

12 Choi and Hartley Selecting suppliers based on the potential for a cooperative,
(1996) long-term relationship is just as important to direct and indirect
suppliers as it is to the auto assemblers. No differences among the
auto assemblers, direct suppliers, and indirect suppliers were
found for the importance placed on consistency (quality and
delivery), reliability, relationship, flexibility, price, and service.
13 Choy et al. (2004) An intelligent supplier relationship management system by
integrating supplier rating system and product coding system by
case-based reasoning technique is discussed.
14 Chung et al. (2008) Traditional and performance-based models of Japanese retailers’
channel relationships are compared and the impact of
performance on Japanese retail-buyer-supplier relationships is
studied.
15 Cook and Johnston Unique capabilities of available suppliers of a major international
(1992) manufacturer of telecommunication equipment are evaluated by a
multi criteria approach.
16 Cormican and Focuses on the development of a supplier performance rating tool
Cunningham (2007) for a large multinational organisation. A profile of the
organisation, the problems encountered, the development and
implementation of the supplier rating tool and the lessons learned
are presented.
17 Curran (2001) A tool for environmentally preferable purchasing is developed.
18 Davidrajuh (2003) The authors cover a methodology, tools and implementation
techniques for automation of supplier selection procedures as an
e-commerce application. A modelling methodology which can be
used for automation of supplier selection procedures is
developed.
19 Dickson (1966) 23 criteria for supplier selection are determined.
20 Dalalah et al. (2011) This paper presents a hybrid fuzzy model for group multi criteria
decision making (MCDM). A modified fuzzy DEMATEL model
is presented to deal with the influential relationship between the
evaluations criteria.
21 Foster (2008) Supply chain quality management (SCQM) is proposed to
operationalise and understand the effect of increased emphasis on
supply chain management on the practice of quality management.
22 Franceschini et al. Guidelines for a structured approach of outsourcing are given and
(2003) a new approach for managing outsourcing processes, in
accordance with the principles of total quality management is
proposed.
23 Fynes and Voss This paper links the areas of quality management and
(2002) buyer-supplier relationships thus addressing the extent to which
quality practices impact business performance and the effect of
relationship between quality practices and performance on the
nature of buyer-supplier relationships.
24 Micheli (2008) The purpose of this paper is to investigate the supplier selection
issue as a way to mitigate the overall supply risk.

25 Halachmi and Some of the common problems of assessing public sector
Bouckaert (1994) performance are discussed and dual reference to technology is
addressed. It is also pointed out that earlier treatment of the
relationships between technology (in either sense) and
organisational structure in organisation theory is not very relevant
to the case of information technology.
26 Henri (2004) The paper tries to bridge the gap between the organisational
effectiveness models developed in the field of organisational
theory and the performance measurement models presented
within the management accounting literature.
27 Hou et al. (2003) Integration of web-based techniques and business strategies is
done to establish of a network supported-system for supplier
selection.
28 Hsu et al. (2007) Supplier evaluation classifier is built by applying the support
vector machine (SVM) and it is observed under SVM whether the
Likert or Fuzzy scale produces better classification performance.
29 Razmi et al. (2009) In this paper, the aim is to develop a fuzzy analytic network
process (ANP) model to evaluate the potential suppliers and
select the best one(s) with respect to the vendor important factors.
Additionally, ANP is developed by fuzzy sets theory to cover the
indeterminacy of decisions made in this field.
30 Jammernegg and The opportunities and challenges for improving the performance
Reiner (2007) of supply chain processes by coordinated application of inventory
management and capacity management are discussed.
31 Kakouris et al. (2006) A systems-oriented approach for outsourcing decisions and the
purchasing process is given. ‘Planning’ and ‘qualifying’ phases
of the process which, respectively, set the criteria and prepare a
shortlist for invitations, before the final selection are focused in
particular.
32 Kannan and Haq The interactions of criteria and sub-criteria are analysed for the
(2007) selection of supplier in the built-in-order supply chain
environment.
33 Krause and Ellram It is found out that buying firms often directly involve themselves
(1997) in their suppliers’ performance and capabilities problems. The
variation in the buying firms’ success in their supplier
development efforts was discovered.
34 Shaw et al. (2012) This paper presents an integrated approach for selecting the
appropriate supplier in the supply chain, addressing the carbon
emission issue, using fuzzy-AHP and fuzzy multi-objective linear
programming. Fuzzy AHP (FAHP) is applied first for analysing
the weights of the multiple factors
35 Leonard and An inconsistency has been found in TQMs integration with the
McAdam(2002) strategic planning process, It has been discovered that TQM plays
a key role in strategic implementation, rather than strategic
formulation, within the organisations.

36 Levy et al. (1997) The study demonstrates that the rapid flow of goods and
information required by lean production is costly and difficult to
achieve in international supply chains compared to domestic
ones. Various disruptions affect a geographically dispersed
supply chain in a complex, dynamic way. However, it is learnt
that lean production, though difficult and expensive in the
international context, may still be worthwhile.
37 Azadi and Saen A successful approach to address uncertainty in data is to replace
(2012) deterministic data via random variables, leading to
chance-constrained DEA. In this paper, a chance-constrained
FRH (CCFRH) model is developed; its deterministic equivalent,
which is a non-linear programme, is also derived.
38 Min (1994) International supplier selection is risky and complicated due to
the unfamiliarity and uncertainty involved in global sourcing. A
multi attribute approach for international supplier selection of a
multinational firm is proposed.
39 Min and Mentzer Measurement scales were developed; the validity and reliability
(2004) of the developed scales were tested, and the positive relationships
among the supply chain concepts were verified.
40 Shu and Wu (2009) The supplier selection and evaluation on the basis of the quality
criterion is proposed in this paper.
41 Zeydan et al. (2011) A new approach considers both qualitative and quantitative
variables in evaluating performance for selection of suppliers
based on efficiency and effectiveness in one of the biggest car
manufacturing factory in Turkey.
42 Saen (2008) This paper presents a hybrid intelligent algorithm, based on the
push SCM, using a fuzzy neural network and a genetic algorithm.
43 Ndubisi et al. (2005) The manufacturer needs to understand clearly which flexibility of
manufacturing is required, and then adopt a working supplier
selection and management strategy accordingly.
44 Nukala and Gupta A fuzzy mathematical programming approach for supplier
(2007) selection in a closed-loop supply chain network is developed.
45 Nwankwo et al. The authors studied how organisations rank supplier selection
(2002) attributes and the extent to which decision support systems,
expert systems in particular, are used in supplier quality
management.
46 Romer (2002) Different partnership strategies in the purchasing function are
described and different customer-supplier relationships from the
point of view of purchasing are compared.
47 Demirtas and Üstün In this paper, an integrated approach of analytic network process
(2008) (ANP) and multi objective mixed integer linear programming
(MOMILP) is proposed.
48 Parthiban et al. (2013 This study presents the integrated approach of multiple multi
criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques such as fuzzy logic,
strength-weakness-opportunity-threat (SWOT) analysis, and data
envelopment analysis. The efficacy of the proposed approach is
evident from the case study.

49 Parthiban et al. The importance of customer weightage for the evaluation of
(2008) supply chain network design is proposed by a logical approach.
50 Parthiban et al. In this paper, a generic bidding process with respect to customer
(2009a, 2009b) preferences for global sourcing is proposed. And developed an
integrated fuzzy model leveraging fuzzy analytic hierarchy
process and data envelopment analysis for evaluation and
selection of supply chain partner for global sourcing.
51 Parthiban et al. The two clustering methods, divisive and K-means clustering for
(2009a, 2009b) comparison and cluster analysis assists in selecting the final list
of suppliers by parameterised clustering is proposed.
52 Prahinski and Benton Communication strategies improve supplier performance.
(2004)
53 Purdy and Based on whether the supplier evaluation focuses on information
Safayeni(2000) from product- or process-based domains and whether the
information acquisition mode used is direct or indirect, a model is
developed for supplier selection and various advantages and
limitations to each approach are identified.
54 Ebrahim et al. (2009) This paper proposes a mathematical model for a single item
purchasing problem considering various discount schemes
simultaneously.
55 Rangone (1996) Overall performance of manufacturing departments is compared.
Competitive priorities have to be explicitly considered in the
design of a manufacturing performance measurement system,
aimed at monitoring the correct implementation of the
manufacturing strategy at all stages of the organisational
structure.
56 Richardson and The tradeoff between the costs to set up and coordinate with
Roumasset (1995) suppliers and the incentive for performance provided by
competition is evaluated. Sole sourcing being more profitable
than competitive sourcing, depends on parameters such as profit
sensitivity to supplier performance.
57 Lin (2012) To tackle with the multiple criteria and the inherent un certainty
in supplier selection, this stud y propose to adopt the fuzzy
analytic network process (FANP) approach first to identify top
suppliers by considering the effects of inter-dependence among
selection criteria and to handle inconsistent and uncertain
judgements.
58 Khaleie et al. (2012) The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the use of a
clustering-based method to solve a group decision making
(GDM) problem and, also to achieve more realistic and
homogeneous results.
59 Schurr (2007) Critical interaction episodes that fundamentally strengthen or
fatally weaken relationship development are investigated and the
importance of non-critical episodes in business relationships is
also considered.
60 He et al. (2009) In this paper, a class of special chance-constrained programming
models and a genetic algorithm is designed for the vendor
selection problem.

61 Sinclair and Zairi Benchmarking is done to best-practice performance measurement
(1995) within companies using total quality management. It has been
suggested that TQM has reached a wide variety of managers in
companies in different industries and the importance of
improvement in areas such as customer satisfaction, integration
with customers, and quality of processes and output is
understood.
62 Wang and Yang In this paper, the supplier selection under multi-supplier quantity
(2009) discount is treated as mixed integer problem to minimise
purchasing costs.
63 Tan et al. (2007) An application of analytic network process with benefits,
opportunities, costs and risks in supplier selection is studied by
considering a case study in a diesel engine manufacturing firm.
64 Tseng et al. (2009) This paper proposes a novel hierarchical evaluation framework
based upon:
1 multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) analysis
2 analytic network process (ANP) technique
3 Choquet integral.
65 Tvorik and McGivern An integrative model is defined by inter-organisation variables
(1997) represented as economic rates of return for both economic and
organisational factors. These variables are used to examine
performance variance and their economic contribution to firm
profitability.
66 Vokurka et al. (1996) A prototype expert system is developed and it is demonstrated
that expert system technologies can be successful in the
evaluation and selection of potential suppliers. The system
incorporates the strategic partnership considerations of supplier
selection rather than the more traditional quantitative selection
criteria.
67 Waclawski (1996) It is stated that in a service organisation, culture is just as
important as leadership style and sets out to demonstrate this by
using organisational surveys as a way of improving
organisational performance in financial services firms.
68 Lin et al. (2009) This article develops the ANP model based on discussion among
practitioners and experts.
69 Waters-Fuller (1995) Just-in-time purchasing and problems preventing successful
implementation of JIT are discussed.
70 Weber et al. (1991) Various analytical methods used in the vendor selection process
are studied and JITs impact on vendor selection is analysed.
71 Wei et al. (1997) The quality of decision making in the supplier selection process
can be improved by taking advantage of the powerful
computer-related concepts, tools and techniques that have
become available over the years.
72 Ho et al. (2010) This research provides evidence that the multi-criteria decision
making approaches are better than the traditional cost-based
approach.

73 Xiaobing and Qiang Research on supplier selection tactic model for strategic
(2007) purchasing was done.
74 Xu and Li (2007) A multiphase supplier selection model based on supplier
development orientation is proposed using multiphase selection
methods and unconventional criteria combination.
75 Youssef et al. (1996) A simple model for supplier selection in an advanced
manufacturing technology environment is developed and a
variety of scenarios are offered on which the manufacturers can
select the best criteria as per their requirement.
2.2 Empirical study

Empirical study classification of the supplier selection process deals with the
relationships of various entities or attributes with each other involved in the process of
supplier selection of supply chain. There exists a fair amount of literature regarding the
empirical study of supplier selection process. It may deal with the buyer-supplier
relationship or the relation between efficiency of the supply chain and the sourcing
strategy.
Chapman and Carter (1990) and Stamm and Golhar (1993) discussed about just-in-
time (JIT) concept in general and identified the attributes related to JIT purchasing.
Thereby, the benefits and problems with JIT purchasing are determined. Chapman and
Carter (1990) further provides insight about the change in the relative importance of JIT
purchasing depends on whether customer inventory or supplier inventory is used as the
dependent variable. Kekre et al. (1995) developed a model by integrating concepts from
manufacturing, marketing and business strategy to find out and better understand the
links between operating decisions of the firm, supplier availability and product quality.
They found out that operating decisions of the firm along with some other factors help in
reducing the supplier base and thereby increase the quality levels. Carr and Pearson
(1999) studies the relation between strategic purchasing, supplier evaluation systems,
buyer-supplier relationships and firm’s financial performance and prepared five
hypothesised relationships and found out that strategic purchasing is more important to
the success of the firm. Goffin et al. (1997) studied about supplier base management and
established that the key reason for supplier base reduction is to free time to effectively
manage the remaining suppliers. Tagaras and Lee (1996) found out that looking only at
the quality cost of the supplier does not suffice for vendor evaluation process. The
relationship between vendor’s quality cost, input quality and imperfections of the
manufacturing process is explored and the resulting quality cost model is analysed.
Efficient SCM practices can lead to enhanced competitive advantage and improved
organisational performance. Huge literature on supplier relationships has developed,
often termed as interim buyer-seller relationships in business markets (Anderson and
Narus, 1990). A major factor in supplier management involves the type of relationship
the firm develops and maintains with its suppliers. The relationship between supplier and
the buyer is studied extensively in relation marketing by Morgan and Hunt (1994). Ellram
(1990) studied about supplier selection by considering case studies of various firms
involved in the buyer-supplier relationships. The importance of relation building and the
uncertainties in cooperation between buyer and supplier is highlighted by Eriksson et al.

(1998). Thorelli (1986) portrayed relationships as ranging from markets to hierarchies.
Manufacturing companies place a strong emphasis on the role of supply chain
management – the management of supplies, suppliers, inventory and distribution. The
quality cost analysis of the supplier selection process is done by Tagaras and Lee (1996).
It was inferred that looking at only one dimension of the quality cost is not sufficient and
therefore, the relationship between supplier’s quality cost, input quality and imperfections
of the manufacturing process are studied. Monczka et al. (1981), Morgan and Hunt
(1994), Corsten and Felde (2005), Bei et al. (2006), Carr and Pearson (1999) and Toni
and Nassimbeni (1999) give an extensive research about the buyer and supplier
relationships and its effect on the organisation. They give different buying strategies and
the influence of cooperative relation between the buyer and supplier on the supply chain.
The relationship between different criteria involved in the supplier selection process is
deeply studied in Vonderembse and Tracey (1999), Chapman and Carter (1990), Tracey
and Tan (2001), Tullous and Munson (1991) and Fu-jiang et al. (2006). The supplier
selection criteria are very vital in the success of the supply chain and hence, of the
organisation and their relationships are critical in the selection of the supplier. The
organisation’s performance, the inter-related relationships and the other factors affecting
the performance of the organisation are exclusively analysed by Carr and Pearson (1999),
Carr and Kaynak (2007), Lee et al. (2007), Lin and Kuo (2007), Wong and Merrilees
(2007) and Roca-Puig et al. (2007). Ahire and Dreyfus (2000) give the impact of design
management and process management on quality. The effect of supplier selection on the
firm’s performance is given in Fu-jiang et al. (2006).
The literature review regarding empirical study of supplier selection process is
summarised and tabulated as following (Table 2):
Table 2 Literature on empirical study of supplier selection

1 Ahire and Dreyfus An empirical investigation is carried out on the impact of design
(2000) management and process management on quality and the findings
state that to attain superior quality outcomes, firms need to balance
their design and process management efforts.
2 Allen et al. (2008) Relationship between employee perceptions of diversity within the
senior management, management and non-management levels of
their organisations and their perceptions of organisational
performance is investigated.
3 Carr and Kaynak Traditional communication methods and supplier development are
(2007) significant factors for improving a buyer’s performance though
their indirect and direct effects on firm performance vary.
However, reinvestigation must be done by employing better
developed measures of advanced communication methods.
4 Carr and Pearson The relation between strategic purchasing, supplier evaluation
(1999) systems, buyer-supplier relationships and firm’s financial
performance by giving 5 hypothesised relationships is studied and
the results implied that a strategic function is important to the
success of the firm.
5 Chapman and Carter Relative importance of the attributes change depending on the
(1990) dependent variable.
Table 2 Literature on empirical study of supplier selection (continued)

6 Chau (2008) Relationship of strategic performance management to team
strategy, company performance and organisational effectiveness.
7 Chow et al. (2008) Association of supply chain management components and
organisational performance is studied and critical components of
SCM are found to have considerable effects on organisational
performance.
8 Chutima and It has been found out that supplier contract type, supplier
Sanghatawatana development plan, cooperation, trade alliance and sourcing
(2007) development are important strategies and affect the performance
of buyers and suppliers.
9 Corsten and Felde Examine buyer-supplier relationships from the point of view of the
(2005) buying firm and examine the conditions under which the proposed
benefits of collaboration between a firm and its suppliers will
occur.
10 Toni and Relationships between advanced buyer-supplier operational
Nassimbeni (1999) interaction practices and the basic options of the buyer’s
purchasing strategy are analysed and comparison of these
operational practices and purchasing policies in different
performing plants is done.
11 More and Mateen Approach to tackle supplier selection problem using data
(2012) envelopment analysis (DEA) that uses an ideal target for each
selection criteria and then identifies the best supplier available.
12 Eriksson et al. Uncertainty regarding relationship and decision-making has strong
(1998) direct effects on relationship cooperation. An important finding is
that contextual uncertainty causes relationship cooperation
indirectly.
13 Fu-jiang et al. Effect of supplier selection criteria and integration mechanisms on
(2006) customer satisfaction and business performance.
14 Fu-jiang et al. Supplier selection based on performance and collaboration have
(2006) direct or indirect positive effects on customer satisfaction (CS) and
business performance (BP) and it is found that the effect of
supplier selection based on unit price on CS and BP is not
statistically significant and that information sharing and system
coupling, as the major mechanisms of supplier integration, have
positive effect on CS and BP significantly.
15 Goffin et al. (1997) It is established that a key reason for supplier base reduction is to
free time to more effectively manage the remaining suppliers.
16 Gonzalez-Benito Environmental pro-activity has mixed effects on business
and Gonzalez- performance and this relationship must be disaggregated into more
Benito (2005) specific and concrete relationships.
17 Kannan and Tan At both strategic and operational levels, linkages exist between
(2005) how just in time, total quality management, and supply chain
management are viewed by organisations as part of their
operations strategy.

18 Kekre et al. (1995) The relation between operating decisions of the firm, supplier
availability and product quality is studied and analysis shows that
operating decisions and environmental factors such as wider
product lines, lower levels of competition, and greater frequency
of product changes increase the likelihood of a firms’ reduction of
supplier base, which in turn raises quality levels.
19 Lee et al. (2007) Internal integration is the most important contributor to
cost-containment while integration with the supplier is the best
strategy to achieve supply chain reliable performance.
20 Lin and Kuo (2007) The relationships between human resource management,
organisational learning, knowledge management capability and
organisational performance are analysed and the results show that
HRM has a direct and significant impact on OL and KMC. HRM
influences OP indirectly through OL and KMC. In addition, OL
and KMC have direct and significant influences on OP.
21 Lin and Tseng Identifying the role of participation strategies and information
(2006) technology application for improved supply chain performance.
22 Maiga and Jacobs The effect of four measures related to benchmarking and its
(2004) successful implementation on organisational performance is
examined.
23 Mukherjee and Nath Empirical assessment of various comparative approaches to
(2005) service quality measurement.
24 Naseebullah et al. Framework was developed that categorised into perceived
(2012) management readiness, perceived technological readiness and
perceived environmental readiness. The empirical results show
that organisational e-readiness has a positive and significant
impact on e-procurement implementation.
25 Onken (1999) Examines the effects of polychronicity and speed values on
organisation’s performance.
26 Roca-Puig et al. It is found out that organisational commitment to employees
(2007) (OCE) by itself does not affect organisational performance. It is
necessary to consider the context in which it is applied in order to
understand the effect of OCE on performance.
27 Sanchez-Rodrıguez The important interrelationships among the various supplier
et al. (2005) development practices of basic, moderate and advanced levels are
identified.
28 Stamm and Golhar Benefits and problems with JIT purchasing are discussed and the
(1993) attributes related to JIT purchasing are identified.
29 Tagaras and Lee The relationship between the vendor’s quality cost, the vendor’s
(1996) input quality, and the imperfections of the manufacturing process
is explored. Only one dimension of the quality cost is not
sufficient and the importance of having a high quality internal
process is highlighted.
30 Talluri (2002) Selection and negotiation of purchasing bids.
31 Tracey and Tan Uses confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis to examine the
(2001) relationship among supplier selection criteria.
32 Tullous and Munson Importance of purchasing criteria and the patterns associated with
(1991) trade-off are identified.

33 Vijayaraghavan and Supply management orientation and its effect on buyer’s and
Raju (2008) supplier’s performance is studied in companies that are closely
associated with an automobile giant in India.
34 Vonderembse and The extent to which supplier selection criteria and supplier
Tracey (1999) involvement are used by manufacturers is investigated and
supports the claim that organisations using these practices have
improved supplier and manufacturing performance.
35 Wang and Zhang The environment makes it difficult for companies to make quick
(2006) response to market demand all by them. It is, therefore, necessary
for companies to increase their outsourcing activities.
36 Wang et al. (2004) Change of companies’ supplier selection strategy in priority over
time to be in compliance with the change of competitive priorities
is examined. Different considerations of supplier selection
strategies (SSS) in different national background are compared.
37 Wong and Merrilees An empirical study is carried out to examine the inter-related
(2007) relationships among various branding issues in international
marketing.
3 Research gap analysis
An analysis of the research gap was made based on the literature review of the articles
referred. Most of the research done was concentrated on developing approximate
solutions rather than developing sophisticated and exact optimal solutions of supplier
selection problems. Minute points might have been overlooked to avoid computational
difficulty. Supplier selection is a sophisticated multi-criteria decision-making problem,
and it becomes further complicated if the highly important interdependence among the
selection criteria is taken into consideration. There has been very little literature covering
the interdependence of criteria taken into account. Some common practices in the
real-life business transactions like discount offered by the supplier for a huge order were
not covered in the extant research. In the literature, less focus was there on the decisions
on the appropriate selection of suppliers, and on assigning order quantities to these
suppliers in case of discounted cost. Considering the demand, supplier’s and
manufacturer’s capacity, minimum order quantity, limitation on the number of selected
suppliers, total capacities of selected suppliers and discounted cost, all or few of them at
once makes the supplier selection process more complicated, but which are taken into
account in real life situations. This was not covered to large extent in the research.
4 Future scope of work
From the state of the art literature review, it is evident that the supplier selection problem
is a MCDM problem, whose complexity is increased if interdependence among the
criteria is taken into consideration. The common practices in real life business
transactions, when taken into consideration, will enhance the efficiency and accuracy of
the problem. This can be taken as a future work. Another problem for further research
can be that many supplier selection models are available which stress only on the criteria
required by the buyers but not on the opportunities, costs and risks faced by the buyers
when they select a specific supplier. Supply management is a complex order allocation
decision problem when multiple suppliers are available. A limitation on the minimum
order size, which usually happens in the case of interim suppliers, makes the problem
more complicated. Further research can be done to accommodate other features like
discounted cost, concave transportation cost, multi-period capacity, etc.
5 Conclusions
An extensive review of the literature was carried out on supplier selection and evaluation
problem. A brief summary of SCM was studied and the complete process of supplier
selection and evaluation was discussed in detail. It has been discovered that in the current
scenario, it is very much necessary for any organisation to deliver quality products at
lesser cost in the right time to the right customer to survive in the global competing
environment. Since most of the costs are covered by production costs and raw material
costs, which eventually depend on the supplier, emphasis has been laid on supplier
selection. It is one of the steps of paramount importance in the SCM. Proper supplier is
highly important for the efficient and an effective SCM. Sourcing and purchasing
functions were deeply discussed. Different strategies in sourcing were also examined. All
the literature referred about supplier selection and evaluation was categorised as
conceptual approach, empirical study and analytical models pertaining to supplier
selection. In this paper, we only considered conceptual and empirical categories in detail.
The articles in the conceptual approach category gave the importance of supplier
selection and its criteria and gave some new concepts regarding vendor selection and
evaluation.
The articles in the empirical study category give the relationship between various
attributes, entities involved in the process of supplier selection or the effect of them on
the performance of the supply chain.
To summarise the whole thing, supplier/vendor selection is a complex MCDM
problem whose criteria depends on the buyer/manufacturer according to his requirements
at the instant of selecting the supplier, where determining the criteria relevant to the
situation becomes very important. The importance of criteria or the weight given to each
criterion involved in the supplier selection process changes from buyer to buyer and time
to time, depending on the situation.
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Analysis of supplier selection methods through conceptual module and

Article in International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management · January 2014

Abdul Zubar Premanand Parthiban

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Analysis of supplier selection methods through

H. Abdul Zubar* and P. Parthiban

Abstract: Supplier selection is considered as the most important step in the

Keywords: supplier selection; conceptual approach; supplier evaluation;

Copyright © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

In a world which is continuously shrinking due to global competing environment, the

Figure 1 Supply chain process

Supplier Supplier selection and Design Sourcing

2.1 Conceptual approach

Table 1 Literature on conceptual approaches of supplier selection

S. no. Authors name Comments

Table 1 Literature on conceptual approaches of supplier selection (continued)

S. no. Authors name Comments

Table 1 Literature on conceptual approaches of supplier selection (continued)

S. no. Authors name Comments

Table 1 Literature on conceptual approaches of supplier selection (continued)

S. no. Authors name Comments

Table 1 Literature on conceptual approaches of supplier selection (continued)

S. no. Authors name Comments

Table 1 Literature on conceptual approaches of supplier selection (continued)

S. no. Authors name Comments

Table 1 Literature on conceptual approaches of supplier selection (continued)

S. no. Authors name Comments

2.2 Empirical study

uncertainties in cooperation between buyer and supplier is highlighted by Eriksson et al.

S. no. Authors name Comments

Table 2 Literature on empirical study of supplier selection (continued)

S. no. Authors name Comments

Table 2 Literature on empirical study of supplier selection (continued)

S. no. Authors name Comments

Table 2 Literature on empirical study of supplier selection (continued)

S. no. Authors name Comments

3 Research gap analysis

4 Future scope of work

Tvorik, S.J. and McGivern, M.H. (1997) ‘Determinants of organizational performance’,

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