Rule-based approach for supplier evaluation

This paper presents a concept of use of the rule-based reasoning systems for evaluation and classification of the suppliers. The problem of suppliers selection is widely discussed in literature. Majority of the authors apply the method of multi-criteria evaluation for selection of suppliers, mainly the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) algorithm and related ones, to find its solution. In this paper it has been proved that a suitably expressive system of rules management can be used as an effective tool for suppliers evaluation. In the presented work we have applied the Rebit system which was elaborated by the AGH University of Science and Technology. An example of evaluation of a supplier of primary charging materials for metal processing enterprise has been presented. It has been shown how individual evaluation criteria are grouped into sets of independent rules and how one may use tools to enhance the knowledge acquisition.