A Hierarchical Decision Support System for Supplier Selection in Process Industry

Supplier selection is recognized as a critical decision in supply chain management in process industries. In such industries the procurement department plays an important role in reducing purchasing cost and selecting appropriate suppliers. The supplier selection problem is a multi criteria unstructured problem. Several key factors like quality, cost, delivery time and warranty etc., are commonly involved in the supplier selection decision making process. In this paper a hierarchical decision support system was developed for selecting the best supplier by using analytic hierarchy process model. This model was illustrated with a case study in a cement industry.