An adapted multi-criteria approach to suppliers and products selection – An application oriented to lead-time reduction

In this paper, a structured approach to select the most suitable dyad supplier/purchased items with the purpose to streamline the procurement process is proposed. Due to its characteristics, the approach is particularly suitable to be adopted when a wide number of vendors and purchased items have to be pondered. To progressively reduce the amount of alternatives to be assessed, the approach integrates cluster analysis and multi-criteria decision making techniques. Fuzzy logic is also brought in to deal with the ill-defined nature of the selection process.