Multiple criteria decision making in supply chain management – Currently available methods and possibilities for future research

Abstract

Decisions in supply chain management (SCM) are subject to various conflicting criteria and multiple objectives must be considered in the decision process. Fur-thermore, a group, rather than a single decision maker, is often involved in the process. For such decisions, methods in multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) are certainly appropriate. However, an overview concerning applications of MCDM methods in SCM is not yet available. This paper conducts a literature survey to fill this gap and give an overview of MCDM applications in SCM; a research map is developed to guide researchers interested in this field. We cate-gorize 124 reviewed articles according to application areas in SCM, applied methods, journals, publication year and we ascertain whether the papers incorpo-rate a group decision approach or use empirical support for the MCDM applica-tion. A central review finding is the strong growth of MCDM applications in SCM in the last six years, expected to continue in the future. In addition, the application area purchasing is already well covered, contrary to the application area distribu-tion. This article's contribution to academia, as well as business practice, is repre-sented in the MCDM methods overview, currently available for SCM decision problems. We also present potential areas for future research.