The Application of a Simple Method in Vendor Selection

Vendor selection problem (VSP) is a very important issue for most manufacturers. Lots of literatures about it have been emitted since the 1970s. However, most methods of them are either subjective or complicated. From the perspective of reducing these shortcomings, this paper proposes a linear optimization hierarchy process (LOHP) by combining the multi-criteria decision model (MCDM) in the work of Ng (2007) and the hierarchy thinking. The LOHP can not only reduce the subjectivity and complicacy efficiently, but also solve the special VSP easily which contains a large amount of criteria. Thus, the LOHP has high practical value in dealing with the VSP. At the end of this article, a realistic example is applied to demonstrate how the LOHP could be used.