Title: A rapid method for sustainable supplier selection in pharmaceutical distribution companies under uncertainty circumstance

Authors: Nassibeh Janatyan; Mostafa Zandieh; Akbar Alem Tabriz; Masood Rabieh

Addresses: Department of Management, Shahid Beheshti University, Velenjak, 1983969411, Tehran, Iran ' Department of Management, Shahid Beheshti University, Velenjak, 1983969411, Tehran, Iran ' Department of Management, Shahid Beheshti University, Velenjak, 1983969411, Tehran, Iran ' Department of Management, Shahid Beheshti University, Velenjak, 1983969411, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: According to rapid changing in firms' environment, managers have to select suppliers faster to survive in the competitive market. Nowadays, global community expect companies to consider the environmental and social aspects of their decisions. In this study, rapid technique has been used to prioritise suppliers considering three bottom lines of sustainability, i.e., economic, social, and environmental aspects in field of pharmaceutical industry in uncertain conditions. This method is useful for managers to select suppliers rapidly and sustainably in unsure circumstance. In this research, important factors for selecting suppliers have been chosen. By using fuzzy AHP technique in uncertainty circumstance and the automatic clustering of data in decision table via genetic algorithm (to reduce the calculations of decision table), suppliers would be prioritised. This method was tested in Daroupakhsh pharmaceutical distribution company in Iran to prioritise suppliers of Clopidogrel drug.

Keywords: sustainable supplier selection; uncertainty; pharmaceutical distribution companies; fuzzy AHP; FAHP; automatic clustering.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPM.2019.102163

International Journal of Procurement Management, 2019 Vol.12 No.5, pp.572 - 591

Received: 25 Jun 2018
Accepted: 14 Oct 2018
Published online: 09 Sep 2019 *

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