Supplier Selection Using Grey Systems Theory

Abstract

Supplier selection is a multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) problem largely discussed in the scientific literature. The supplier selection problem has evolved from a commodity-based operational decision approach—which considers mainly aspects related to economic issues, described through a series of strategic performance measures (such as cost, quality, time, flexibility, innovativeness, etc.) or organizational factors (such as culture, technology, relationship, etc.), to a sustainable supplier selection problem, highly titrated now-a-days, where elements such as pollution, company’s green image and resources consumption hold the spot. The chapter provides an overview of the evaluation criteria and of the methodologies used over time for solving the supplier selection problem, with an accent on the applications featuring the grey systems theory. To this extent, a bibliometric analysis is conducted, along with a review of the works conducted on supplier and criteria ranking. Furthermore, a grey approach to supplier selection extracted from the scientific literature is presented from both a theoretical and a practical point of view.