Multi-supplier Environment Research Articles

Emergency order allocation of e-medical supplies due to the disruptive events of the healthcare crisis

The availability of electronic (e-medical) homecare essentials, such as thermometers, oximeters, and oxygen concentrators during the peaks of the pandemic coronavirus disease (COVID-19), has been witnessed as critical in saving the lives of people across the world. This paper presents a supply order allocation strategy of e-medical homecare essentials (HCEs) in a multi-supplier environment by a distributor while ensuring sufficient and timely availability for emergency consumption during pandemic peaks. The results, based on the actual demand data of HCEs obtained from a regional HCE distributor during the pandemic peak of the second wave in India, i.e. April-May 2021, suggest that a minimum (maximum) average of 94% (98%) availability of e-medical HCEs respectively at pharmacies could be achieved during the peak demand period using the proposed emergency order allocation algorithm in this study. Conclusively, the analysis of this study could generate insightful implications for emergency operations decisions in the HCEs supply-distribution channel.

Supplier selection of recycled plastic materials using best worst and TOPSIS method

Supplier selection problem is one of the most important business activities related to sustainable development because it has significant effect on product quality and quantity and sustainability issues. PT Wonorejo Makmur Abadi is a plastic manufacturing company that produces plastic mats in many various brands and sizes. The raw materials used are recycled Polypropylene (PP) type of plastic raw materials to reduce mat production costs. There are several criteria that must be considered in determining suppliers including price, delivery, capability, and flexibility. The company must be careful in making decisions in supplier selection because there are several criteria that must be considered simultaneously. Therefore, in this paper, a decision-making tool is provided to solve the sustainable supplier selection in multi-item and multi-supplier environment. At first, one of the efficient Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approaches called Best Worst Method (BWM) is used to determine the weight of each criterion, where the weight will be used in the evaluation of each supplier to select the most appropriate supplier using the Technique For Reference Orders By Similarity To Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method. The results of this research can help managers in this plastic industry to deal with the sustainable supplier selection problem. Furthermore, the presented approach in this research can assist managers of other industries to select and evaluate their suppliers.

A bi-objective sustainable supplier selection and order allocation considering quantity discounts under disruption risks: A case study in plastic industry

In recent years, the supplier selection problem as one of the important components in sustainable development is considered which this is due to the importance of quality and quantity of the product and sustainability issues. Besides, in this paper, a decision-making tool is provided to solve the sustainable supplier selection and order allocation problem in a multi-period, multi-item, and multi-supplier environment considering quantity discounts and disruption risks. At first, one of the efficient Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approaches called Best Worst Method (BWM) is employed to find a global importance weight of each determined criterion and the preference weights of each potential supplier according to these criteria. Then the proposed MILP model attempt to minimize the total costs and maximize the total score of all suppliers in respect to three sustainability aspects. Also, in order to solve the proposed bi-objective mathematical model, a Revised Multi-Choice Goal Programming (RMCGP) method is applied. Additionally, a consistency test is applied to check the quality of expert comments. To investigate the robustness of the approach, the sensitivity analysis is utilized. Also, a real-world case study in the north of Iran is presented to highlight the performance of the proposed model. Finally, the selected suppliers, amount of inventory and shortage, ordered quantity along with other variables are calculated. Also, based on sensitivity analysis, the effect of quantity discounts and disruption risks are revealed. The results approve the efficiency of the proposed approach.

Order allocation in a multi-supplier environment: review of the literature since 2007

Purpose: Optimal order allocation on the part of the buyer in a multi-supplier environment has become a major concern in supply chains. There are numerous articles that analyze and present models for optimizing order allocation from a given panel of suppliers. The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis on this topic which considers: (i) aims, (ii) results, (iii) model complexity, and (iv) resolution procedures. Design/methodology/approach: The paper reviews twenty-eight articles, twenty-one of them published since 2007 in journals indexed by Journal Citation Reports (in ISI Web of Knowledge) on this topic. Findings and Originality/value: This review reveals four main aspects mentioned as determinant in generating mathematical models. The analysis of these four points does not allow for a single, overarching model. Rather, all analyzed solutions reflect and respond to a specific company environment. Originality/value: A global analysis on several recent papers, describing main aspects wich determines optimal order allocation in multi-supplier environment.