Supplier selection by using a fuzzy approach in just-in-time: A case study

This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution , reselling , loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Supplier selection has received extensive attention in the just-in-time approach. Supplier selection and evolution are decisions of strategic importance to companies. Thus, supplier performance evaluation is very important in choosing the right supplier for the right product. In this paper, a method for supplier selection using fuzzy logic was performed. Fuzzy logic enables us to emulate the human reasoning process and make decisions based on imprecise data. The method is based on calculating a fuzzy suitability index for the efficient vendor alternatives, and then ranking the fuzzy indices to select the best supplier alternatives. 1. Introduction In today's highly competitive environment, an effective supplier selection process is very important to the success of any manufacturing organisation (Liv and Hai 2005). In this case, selection of the right supplier becomes more important. This is confirmed by many researchers (Bevilacqua and Petroni 2002, Kumar et al. 2004, Liv and Hai 2005, and Kumar et al. 2006). In designing a supply chain, a decision maker must consider the selection of the right supplier and their quota allocation (Kumar et al. 2004). As a result, increased concern for supplier selection has taken place, which is probably owing to the fact that supplier selection may be the single most important phase of the purchasing process (Pearson and Ellram 1995). Purchasing managers need periodically to evaluate supplier performance in order to retain those suppliers who meet their requirements in terms of several performance criteria (Bevilacqua and Petroni 2002). In recent years, research into just-in-time (JIT) production from various viewpoints has been carried out all over the world (Takahashi et al. 2004) and the application of JIT concept to supply chain management has been attempted (Zimmer 2002, Kim and Ha 2003). In …