A web-based group decision support system for supplier evaluation and selection

Abstract

Supplier selection is one of the vital processes which have an impact on the competitiveness of firms by affecting their costs, the quality of goods and services produced, and customer satisfaction. Suppliers’ evaluation is a multi criteria decision problem associated with several perspectives such as cost, quality, logistics, production, finance and sales. This necessitates the involvement of different parties within a firm and requires a group of decision makers to work collaboratively to come up with an acceptable solution. Additionally, the evaluations should be repeated on a periodical basis by keeping track of the past performances and the decision process should be as short as possible to be responsive in a competitive environment. In this study, a web-based group decision support system (GDSS) environment is developed to solve the supplier selection problem by using an Analytic Hierarchy Process model. The GDSS provides a flexible and dynamic environment which enables the participation of several parties with the use of advanced web technologies in order to cope with the complexities of the supplier selection problem.