Application of complex proportional assessment method for vendor selection

Abstract

In a supply chain environment, the decision-making is related with the selection of vendors and the quantities to be purchased from those vendors. A number of vendor selection attributes are to be considered and the objectives are to be formulated. An effective vendor selection process requires the consideration of many quantitative as well as qualitative factors. Evaluating vendor alternatives in the presence of multiple conflicting criteria and performance measures is often a difficult task for the decision-maker. In this paper, an attempt is made to explore the applicability and capability of an almost new multi-criteria decision-making approach, i.e. a complex proportional assessment (COPRAS) method for vendor selection. Two examples are illustrated to demonstrate the applicability and ranking performance of COPRAS method while solving the given vendor selection problem. In all these cases, the results obtained using the COPRAS method almost match with those derived by the previous researchers.