A novel hybrid SWARA and VIKOR methodology for supplier selection in an agile environment

Abstract

The concept of the agile supply chain has been taken into account as means of achieving a high competitive edge in rapidly changing business environments. Supply partner selection is one of the most appealing issues for agile supply chain management, which have recently been studied by academicians and practitioners. Due to a large number of factors to be considered, supplier selection process is a difficult task for every company. Therefore, supplier selection process can be viewed as a multiple attribute decision-making (MADM) problem. In this paper, a novel hybrid MADM method is proposed for agile supplier selection based on four criteria including performance, cost, flexibility and technology. Two MADM methods, including step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) and Vlse Kriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) are applied in decision-making process. More precisely, SWARA is used for determining the importance of each criterion and calculating their weights and VIKOR is applied for evaluating alternatives as well as ranking supplier alternatives from the best to the worst. More precisely, the first phase of the proposed methodology, step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA), is useful for determining the importance of each criterion and calculating the weight of each criterion, and the second phase with Vlse Kriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) is useful for evaluating alternatives as well as ranking supplier alternatives from the best to the worst. Finally, a real case-study is presented to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed methodology. As a result, the model can help managers to evaluate and select the best supplier regarding own company strategies, resources, policies and etc. for their organization.

Keywords:

• selection
• multiple criteria analysis
• method
• system
• MCDM

JEL Classification:

• A12
• C15
• C80
• E22

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maryam Alimardani

Maryam ALIMARDANI received her Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering – Industrial Production from Shomal University, Amol, Iran in 2009. She received her Master's degree in Industrial Engineering – Industrial Engineering from University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran in 2012. Her papers have appeared in international conferences and journals, such as International Journal of Production Research, International Journal of Civil and Structural Engineering, Zadeh Journal of Mathematics. Her major research interests include production planning and control, supply chain management, supply chain inventory management, multi criteria decision-making.

Sarfaraz Hashemkhani Zolfani

Sarfaraz HASHEMKHANI ZOLFANI received his Bachelor's degree in Industrial Management and Master's degree in Industrial Engineering from Shomal University, Iran. He is a PhD student of Technology Foresight in Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic). He is working at Future Studies Research Institute of Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Sustainability office of Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic) and Research Institute of the Internet and Intelligent Technologies, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University. He is a member of EURO Working Group OR in Sustainable Development and Civil Engineering. He is a reviewer in journals like: International Journal of Strategic Property Management, International Journal of Business and Society etc. He is an author of more than 45 scientific papers that presented, published or reviewed at/for International Conferences and Journals (including ISI-cited publications). He has published in journals such as: Technological and Economic Development of Economy, Journal of Business Economics and Management, International Journal of Strategic Property Management, Archives of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Transport, The Baltic Journal of Road and Bridge Engineering etc. His research interests include: performance evaluation, strategic management, decision-making theory, supply chain management, (fuzzy) multi criteria decision making, marketing, future studies, sustainable development.

Mohammad Hasan Aghdaie

Mohammad Hasan AGHDAIE received his Bachelor's and Master's degreed in Industrial Engineering from Shomal University, in Amol. He is the author of more than 21 scientific papers in international conferences and international journals, which were published, accepted or peer-reviewed. He has published in journals such as Journal of Business Economics and Management, International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, The Baltic Journal of Road and Bridge Engineering, Quarterly journal of Research and Planning in Higher Education, Engineering Economics, and several others. His current research interests include operations research, decision analysis, multiple criteria decision analysis, operations research interfaces with other fields, especially marketing, market segmentation, marketing research and modelling, market design and engineering, pricing, data mining, data science, application of fuzzy sets and systems, creative thinking and problem solving.

Jolanta Tamošaitienė

Jolanta TAMOŠAITIENĖ. Associate Professor, Dr, a Vice-Dean of Civil Engineering Faculty and working in the Department of Construction Technology and Management at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania. Since 2013 is a member of Editorial Board “The Journal of Engineering, Project, and Production Management”, since 2011 is a member of Editorial Board “Technological and Economic Development of Economy” journal. Since 2009 is a member of EURO Working Group OR in Sustainable Development and Civil Engineering, EWG-OR SDCE. Since 2013 is a board member of Engineering, Project, and Production Management Association. She published 50 scientific papers. Research interests: many miscellaneous management areas (enterprise, construction project etc.), risk assessment, construction project administration, building life-cycle, construction technology and organisation, decision-making and grey system theory, Decision Making (DM), statistics, optimization, strategies, game theory, intelligent support system, Sustainable Development: developing of alternative construction processes, economic and other aspects, sustainable development challenges for business and management in construction enterprises, environmental impact processes etc.