Evaluation and selection of vendor combination in global supply chain system

Vendor evaluation and selection has strategic implications that contribute to the operational management of a global supply chain. Based on fuzzy decision theory and characteristics of supply chain management, in this research, a comprehensive evaluation approach is presented for optimal combination selection among candidate vendors and outsourced parts. At first, the judgment for process and production capacities of candidate vendors is made to filter some useless information. An evaluation system with a set of vendor selection indices is established. Also, a hierarchical fuzzy model for vendor selection is developed. And thus, a progressively-simplified approach is presented to deal with the vendor combination selection problem in a global supply chain system. Finally, a case study is conducted to illustrate the analysis process of this approach.