Vendor Selection Using Principal Component Analysis

Multicriteria Approach for Supplier Selection: Evidence from a Case Study in the Fashion Industry

Worldwide manufactures are redesigning supply chains, often outsourcing with the aim of maintaining a competitive advantage and gaining market share. When selecting and purchasing fabrics, firms should actively cooperate with suppliers, to meet customers’ needs. In this view, the supplier selection process plays a key role in keeping a competitive edge in global markets. Therefore, this study proposes a multicriteria decision-making model (MCDM) to ease supplier evaluation and selection. Supply chain operation reference metrics (SCOR metrics) and fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (FTOPSIS) are combined to build a model for supplier selection. The former allows us to conduct a very thorough fact-based analysis of all features in the supply chain, while the combination of fuzzy theory and SCOR model allows us to deal with uncertainty. The main novelty of this method is that it incorporates a consolidated supply chain management criteria within the framework of fuzzy set theory and multicriteria decision-making model (MCDM) facilitating their application into practice. The proposed approach is tested by considering the case of a manufacturing firm in the fashion industry willing to designate the most appropriate supplier within a set of three potential ones.

Digital twins enable the quantification of the trade-offs in maintaining citrus quality and marketability in the refrigerated supply chain

Supply chains of fresh fruit must maintain a very narrow window of hygrothermal conditions after harvest. Any excursions outside this range can markedly lower the consumer acceptability of the fruit. However, the loss in fruit quality and marketability largely remains invisible to stakeholders throughout the supply chain. Here we developed a physics-based digital twin of citrus fruit to pinpoint when, why and to what extent fruit quality and marketability are reduced. Sensor data on 47 commercial shipments are thereby translated into actionable metrics for supply chain stakeholders by mapping the variability using principal component analysis. We unveiled a large spread (between 3% and 60%) in the shipments for different metrics of quality and marketability. Half of the shipments currently lie outside the ideal trade-off range between maintaining quality, killing fruit fly larvae and avoiding chilling injury. The digital twin technology opens the possibility to obtain the real-time coupling with sensor data to monitor food quality and marketability.

The LR-Type Fuzzy Multi-Objective Vendor Selection Problem in Supply Chain Management

Vendor selection is an established problem in supply chain management. It is regarded as a strategic resource by manufacturers, which must be managed efficiently. Any inappropriate selection of the vendors may lead to severe issues in the supply chain network. Hence, the desire to develop a model that minimizes the combination of transportation, deliveries, and ordering costs under uncertainty situation. In this paper, a multi-objective vendor selection problem under fuzzy environment is solved using a fuzzy goal programming approach. The vendor selection problem was modeled as a multi-objective problem, including three primary objectives of minimizing the transportation cost; the late deliveries; and the net ordering cost subject to constraints related to aggregate demand; vendor capacity; budget allocation; purchasing value; vendors’ quota; and quantity rejected. The proposed model input parameters are considered to be LR fuzzy numbers. The effectiveness of the model is illustrated with simulated data using R statistical package based on a real-life case study which was analyzed using LINGO 16.0 optimization software. The decision on the vendor’s quota allocation and selection under different degree of vagueness in the information was provided. The proposed model can address realistic vendor selection problem in the fuzzy environment and can serve as a useful tool for multi-criteria decision-making in supply chain management.

Using Baidu index to nowcast hand-foot-mouth disease in China: a meta learning approach

BACKGROUND

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) has been recognized as one of the leading infectious diseases among children in China, which causes hundreds of annual deaths since 2008. In China, the reports of monthly HFMD cases usually have a delay of 1-2 months due to the time needed for collecting and processing clinical information. This time lag is far from optimal for policymakers making decisions. To alleviate this information gap, this study uses a meta learning framework and combines publicly Internet-based information (Baidu search queries) for real-time estimation of HFMD cases.

METHODS

We incorporate Baidu index into modeling to nowcast the monthly HFMD incidences in Guangxi, Zhejiang, Henan provinces and the whole China. We develop a meta learning framework to select appropriate predictive model based on the statistical and time series meta features. Our proposed approach is assessed for the HFMD cases within the time period from July 2015 to June 2016 using multiple evaluation metrics including root mean squared error (RMSE) and correlation coefficient (Corr).

RESULTS

For the four areas: whole China, Guangxi, Zhejiang, and Henan, our approach is superior to the best competing models, reducing the RMSE by 37, 20, 20, and 30% respectively. Compared with all the alternative predictive methods, our estimates show the strongest correlation with the observations.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, the proposed meta learning method significantly improves the HFMD prediction accuracy, demonstrating that: (1) the Internet-based information offers the possibility for effective HFMD nowcasts; (2) the meta learning approach is capable of adapting to a wide variety of data, and enables selecting appropriate method for improving the nowcasting accuracy.

Supplier selection and firm performance

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the various supplier selections construct impacts on firm’s operational competitive capability as well as an overall performance from a developing country’s environment.

Design/methodology/approach

Structural equation modeling was used to study the relationship between supplier selection criteria, competitive operational capabilities and overall organizational performance using survey of informants.

Findings

In this work, the authors demonstrate that an effective supplier selection will lead to an enhanced competitive capability of the buying firm. Specifically, the authors show that selecting suppliers based on quality will lead to an improved quality of the buying firm, service will lead to improved delivery time and supplier strategic fit will lead to reduced cost, improved delivery time and improved flexibility of the buying firm. Furthermore, the buying firm competitive operational capabilities in terms of improved delivery time will lead overall performance from the Ghanaian business environment. The results indicate no significant difference between the manufacturing and service sectors.

Research limitations/implications

The results indicate the relevance and the implications of the various supplier selection criteria from a developing country’s environment such as Ghana.

Practical implications

The research shows how supplier selection criteria should be structured to enhance operational competitive capabilities and overall performance of the buying firm.

Originality/value

The work illustrates and provides some insights and build on the literature in the area of supply selection strategies from a developing country’s environment.

Assessment of supplier quality performance of computer manufacturing industry by using ANP and DEMATEL

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to establish an integrated model of Analytic Network Process (ANP) and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), to assist enterprises to process supplier quality performance rating and comparison and find the core improvement direction to create the value of all supply chain members.

Design/methodology/approach

– This study used the integrated model to process supplier quality performance rating and comparison, which not only improved the order-winners and qualifiers and continued to increase supplier quality performance, but resolved the complex and difficult cause-effect relation issue to find out core improvement items. The cases of Taiwanese industrial computer manufacturers were used to describe the application and benefits of this methodology.

Findings

– The results recommended that the improvement item of supplier A shall focus on design and quality conformance. The recommended improvement item and order for supplier B is design, delivery reliability and delivery speed. This study established ANP and DEMATEL evaluation models, and expanded the application field in the supplier performance evaluation.

Originality/value

– The ANP model is used to calculate the importance of the evaluation criteria, and the DEMATEL method is introduced to consider the impact of the casual relationship of evaluation items and to adjust the importance of the evaluation item, and to solve the complex and difficult practical causation issue.

The role of control systems in partner selection/evaluation processes in established distribution channels

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the partner selection/evaluation processes in established distribution channels (DCs) and the role played by control systems (CS) over major changes in the internal complexity and the external uncertainty of the distribution network.

Design/methodology/approach

– The research is based on a longitudinal case study of a manufacturing firm and its outsourced DC.

Findings

– Over time, the manufacturer's market-focused strategy provoked the adoption through CS of more objective and formal selection processes. It was very clear in this case that while the growth of internal complexity indeed required changes towards formalisation, only the rapidly increasing environmental uncertainty in the 1990s required significantly more elaborate CS to evaluate partners.

Research limitations/implications

– Original longitudinal case – limitations typical for such design of study, e.g. not possible to expand the findings out of company type and historical periods.

Practical implications

– The process of selecting partners, because it is ongoing, requires a formal and active involvement from CS; no CS are indefinitely stable but must be developed whenever significant internal or environmental changes occur. The changes to counter internal complexity seem less elaborate than the changes required by external uncertainty.

Originality/value

– Original longitudinal case illustrates the screening and signalling mechanisms used by both parties to provide information to each other in three different internal complexity/environmental uncertainty scenarios.

An importance-performance analysis for supplier assessment in foreign-aid funded procurement

Purpose

– Using a sample of executing agency executives, donor agency executives and supplying organisation executives, this study aims to identify the critical criteria for the assessment of suppliers in foreign-aid funded procurement in Bangladesh.

Design/methodology/approach

– An instrument with 32-seven-point (1 – rarely, 7 – mostly) Likert-scaled items was employed to gather data on the level of importance assigned by both buyers and suppliers on each supplier assessment criterion. The importance-performance matrix analysis was conducted to assess the gap in expectations between buyers and suppliers and to organise the assessment criteria into four categories such as “low priority”, “possible killer”, “concentrate here”, and “keep up the good work”.

Findings

– The results indicate that, to provide better service, suppliers must assign tasks to the knowledgeable sales personnel, provide better warranties with well-known branded products, and ensure a reliable level of quality. The supplier organisations should implement a high calibre management system that allows prompt responses to enquiries and the provision of services without buyers having to follow up.

Practical implications

– With careful considerations, the methodology and results of the study could be adapted to design supplier assessment procedure in other developing countries.

Originality/value

– This research employs a simple and practical method which purchasing executives will find easy to apply and interpret the findings.

EMPIRICAL STUDY OF SUPPLIER SELECTION PRACTICES IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT IN MANUFACTURING COMPANIES

Supply chain management has seen a wide application since the 1990s in satisfying diversified customer demands. To remain competitive on a global scale, manufacturing companies greatly increased the scope of their outsourcing activities. Consequently, supplier selection has become a highly prioritized activity with major significance to companies. Previous studies of supplier selection show that there are commonly accepted supplier selection criteria. However, there are insufficient studies on the association between the manufacturer's criteria of supplier selection and why it wins orders from its customers. Studies on the differences of supplier selection criteria among manufacturers from different countries are insufficient either. Through empirical study this paper tries to find out the association between manufacturer's criteria in supplier selection and how it wins orders. Considerations of supplier selection criteria in different national background are compared and the consistency of supplier selection criteria and competitive priority is analyzed.