Abstract:

In today’s competitive environment, globalization and outsourcing have made supplier selection an important partnership issue. In terms of competitive advantage, the companies require the supplier with whom they cooperate, raw materials and other materials to be delivered in a timely and effective manner. The supplier selection process, which is becoming more and more complex with the increasing demands of the producers in the competitive market, is a multi-criteria decision making problem as it includes a large number of alternative suppliers and many qualitative and quantitative criteria for evaluating the performance of these suppliers. In addition, lack of information or turbidity about supplier performances leads to uncertainty inherent in this process. This study aims to provide an integrated decision model for the supplier selection process by combining Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Gray Relational Analysis (GRA) approaches in the ceramics industry. In the study, an AHP Model; consisting of sector-specific criteria and sub-criteria that can be used in the supplier evaluation and selection prosese, has been developed. The solution of the model was carried out in two stages: calculating the weight of the supplier selection criteria by AHP and evaluation of alternative suppliers with the help of GRA. The main purpose of the study is to develop an alternative supplier selection model especially for the ceramics industry; to provide a solution under uncertain and insufficient data. In addition, during the process of evaluating and selecting suppliers, the model is intended to offer a decision support tool to the enterprises operating in the ceramics industry. This will reduce the risks in the purchasing process and ensure long-term, trustworthy relationships with suppliers that focus on creating mutual value. It is believed that this study will contribute to the enterprises in the ceramics industry and the literature in this field in order to reach reliable, unbiased and scientific results without spending long time and bearing high cost.

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