Title: Sourcing analytics for evaluating and selecting suppliers using DEA and AHP: a case of the aerospace company

Authors: Seong-Jong Joo; Bradley C. Boehmke; Hokey Min; Ozden Bayazit

Addresses: Department of Operational Sciences, Air Force Institute of Technology, 2950 Hobson Way, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433, USA ' Department of Operational Sciences, Air Force Institute of Technology, 2950 Hobson Way, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433, USA ' Department of Management, College of Business, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio 43403, USA ' College of Business, Central Washington University, Lynnwood, WA 98036, USA

Abstract: Sourcing represents one of the most upstream supply chain activities, which often dictates the rest of downstream supply chain activities. As such, a poor sourcing decision has a significant trickle-down effect on the effectiveness of a buying firm's manufacturing and logistics decisions. Considering such significance, it is imperative for the firm to make a wise, systematic decision in evaluating and selecting suppliers. To support a critical sourcing decision, we propose a supplier evaluation decision-aid tool within the framework of business analytics, which takes in to account the multiple facets of supplier performance evaluation criteria. As a core of such a tool, we develop a relatively new model that is capable of considering both objective and subjective performance criteria simultaneously using a combination of data envelopment analysis (DEA) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP). To verify the practicality and validity of the proposed analytics-based tool, we applied it to an actual problem facing a US aerospace company.

Keywords: supplier evaluation; analytic hierarchy process; AHP; data envelopment analysis; DEA; business analytics; case study.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2020.105910

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2020 Vol.35 No.4, pp.461 - 481

Received: 17 May 2017
Accepted: 09 Jan 2018
Published online: 17 Mar 2020 *

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