Vendor selection using goal programming with satisfaction functions

Supply Chain Management has been the focus of many researchers in recent years. One of the most important components of supply chain is supplier selection. Hence, the search of the best or suitable suppliers is the most capital decision for companies to improve their performance and make the greatest benefits for practitioners. Many approaches of supplier evaluation have been developed in recent year. The objective of this paper is to propose a mathematical model for the supplier selection problem based on the goal programming model incorporating explicitly the satisfaction functions. Indeed, this model involves the suppliers and company constraints as well as the decision maker's preferences. To verify its validity, the model has been applied to a vendor selection process in the field of computer technology and compared with some methods mentioned in the literature.