DEA and TOPSIS techniques for purchasing management: the case of aircraft manufacturing industry

Companies often face a large number of purchase items and potential suppliers. Given the diversity of required items, the equal decision making policies for the supply of different goods do not seem logical. The need of diverse policies explains that a kind of purchase items' and suppliers' categorisation is required. In this study, based on Kraljic model and using a DEA model, the purchase items are classified to strategic, leverage, bottleneck and routine items. The purpose of this classification is distinct between the purchase items to allocate orders and adopt appropriate and suitable policies with the suppliers of related items. On the other hand, suppliers based upon their performance are categorised by TOPSIS technique. Finally, obtained ranking will be the criteria for the allocation of the purchase orders. The efficiency of the proposed approach is investigated by implementing in the laboratories of HESA Company.