Title: A qualitative evaluation of suppliers in a supply network using Six Sigma criterion

Authors: Hamed Fazlollahtabar; Hamed Hajmohammadi; Ali Khadem

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering, Mazandaran University of Science and Technology, Tabarsi Street, P.O. Box 734, Babol, Iran. ' Department of Industrial Engineering, Mazandaran University of Science and Technology, Tabarsi Street, P.O. Box 734, Babol, Iran. ' Department of Industrial Engineering, Mazandaran University of Science and Technology, Tabarsi Street, P.O. Box 734, Babol, Iran

Abstract: This paper concerns with the suppliers evaluation problem in a supply network. Companies are forced to re-evaluate the way they do business in today's highly competitive and global marketplace. Customers are no longer making buying decisions based solely on product quality and price, but are now also demanding high levels of service and flexibility. Therefore, a comprehensive approach for evaluating the suppliers is required. As service and flexibility are qualitative parameters, the aforementioned approach should be based on quality control disciplines. Here, we use control charts as a control tool for the suppliers' performance and Six Sigma criterions for more precise investigations. A 0/1 integer programming approach is applied to identify the optimal set of suppliers in the supply network. The efficiency of the proposed mechanism is presented using numerical illustrations.

Keywords: supply networks; control charts; six sigma; 0-1 integer programming; supplier evaluation; supply chain management; SCM; supplier performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJADS.2012.044947

International Journal of Applied Decision Sciences, 2012 Vol.5 No.1, pp.64 - 76

Published online: 09 Aug 2014 *

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