Method for the supplier selection in supply chain networks

Manufacturing firms (MF) rethought their concept of cooperation and concentrated on their core competences, while outsourcing a significant share of their value creation to suppliers. As a result, the supply chain network (SCN) performance has become a driver of a firms´ competitive ability. The different dimensions of complexity challenge MFs while designing their SCN for a certain product. The supplier selection is an essential activity of this design process. Methods for the supplier selection provided by literature are challenged by this complexity as well as a consideration of the collective behavior of suppliers in SCNs. As a result, this paper presents a system model as basis for the conducted method for supplier selection in SCNs. The method features three domains that describe a three dimensional model for the supplier selection, which consists of three individual but interlinked sets of matrices depending on the perspective on the selection process.