Supplier Selection in Manufacturing

The decision problem

A manufacturer buys the same component from a long supplier list and wants to reduce it to a shortlist of long term partners. Price is not the only thing at stake: a cheap supplier that misses delivery windows stops the line, and a supplier with weak finances is a risk that surfaces years later. The buying team can order the criteria by importance but cannot put a number on them directly. The question is who stays on the list, and how much the answer depends on how heavily quality is weighted.

What the decision matrix looks like

The typical shape of a study like this. Your own matrix can be larger or smaller; nothing here is fixed.

Which method, and why

AHP turns the team's pairwise judgements into weights and reports a consistency ratio, so an incoherent set of judgements is caught before it reaches the ranking. TOPSIS is compensatory: a strong score on one criterion can offset a weaker one, which is how procurement actually trades price against lead time. VIKOR runs on the same matrix as a compromise cross-check, and disagreement between the two orders is itself a finding.

• AHPWeightingMethod page
• TOPSISRankingMethod page
• VIKORCross-checkMethod page

What you get out

Run this flow on your own data

Load the matrix, choose the weighting and ranking methods, read the sensitivity.

Other worked examples

• HealthcareHospital Site Selection
• EnergyRenewable Energy Technology Assessment
• AcademicPhD Thesis: Material Selection