A decision-making framework for evaluating enterprise resource planning systems in a high-tech industry

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP) is becoming essential for achieving fast and transparent information exchange, avoiding unnecessary waste and maintaining coordination within a firm and among partners in a supply chain. However, the implementation of an ERP system often fails, and one major reason is that the selected ERP system is not suitable for the firm. Therefore, a good evaluation framework for selecting the most appropriate ERP system is necessary. This study proposes a framework, which integrates decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), analytic network process (ANP), VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje in Serbian (VIKOR) and fuzzy set theory, for the evaluation of ERP systems. First, the fuzzy DEMATEL is used to understand the direct and indirect relationships among the criteria. Second, the fuzzy ANP is adopted to calculate the importance weights of the sub-criteria. Finally, the most appropriate ERP system is obtained by the fuzzy VIKOR. The proposed decision-making framework is applied to a firm in the high-tech industry in selecting the most appropriate ERP system. The results show that the proposed framework can help firms evaluate ERP systems effectively by collecting experts’ opinions in an uncertain environment.

KEYWORDS:

• High-tech industry
• performance evaluation
• enterprise resource planning (ERP)
• decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL)
• analytic network process (ANP)
• VIKOR
• fuzzy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan [107-2410-H-216-004-MY2].

Notes on contributors

Amy H. I. Lee

Amy H. I. Lee is a distinguished professor in the Department of Technology Management, Department of Industrial Management and the Ph.D. Program of Technology Management at Chung Hua University, Taiwan. She received her MBA degree from the University of British Columbia, Canada, in 1993 and PhD degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from the National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, in 2004. Her research interests include performance evaluation, new product development, supply chain management and production management.

Shun-Chien Chen

Shun-Chien Chen received his master’s degree in Industrial Management from National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, in 2004.  He is a Ph.D. candidate in the Ph.D. Program of Technology Management at Chung Hua University, Taiwan. His research interests include performance evaluation and new product development.

He-Yau Kang

He-Yau Kang received his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan. He is a distinguished professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at National Chin-Yi University of Technology, Taichung, Taiwan. He is currently the Dean of the College of Management at National Chin-Yi University of Technology, Taichung, Taiwan. His research interests include supply chain management, performance evaluation and renewable energy.