Title: Cross-functional decision support systems for a supplier selection problem

Authors: Shah Jahan Miah, Michael Huth

Addresses: Informatics, Faculty of Business, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippydowns Drive, Maroochydore DC, Queensland 4558, Australia. ' Faculty of Business, Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Marquardstrasse 35 – 36039 Fulda, Germany

Abstract: In supply chain management, how to determine appropriate suppliers has been a key challenge in strategic decision making. Supply chain managers need to explore options in selecting suitable suppliers that best fulfil the requirements in a competitive environment. This article focuses on how the supplier selection process can be delegated to different organisational levels and to different functional or divisional units within a company. We demonstrate how this de-centrally executed selection process can be supported by a new type of decision support system (DSS) platform, in which cross functional decision making on different managerial levels can be supported. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this type of DSS for supplier selection using a widely used multi-attribute utility approach. The applicability of such an approach will be demonstrated using a subset of sample data from a real-world project.

Keywords: supplier selection; SCM; supply chain management; decision support systems; cross functional systems; supply chain managers; competitive environments; organisational levels; functional units; divisional units; decentralisation; selection processes; managerial levels; multi-attribute decision making.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2011.040700

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2011 Vol.11 No.3/4, pp.217 - 230

Received: 25 Jun 2010
Accepted: 07 Dec 2010
Published online: 29 Nov 2014 *

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