Analysis of supplier selection methods through conceptual module and empirical study

Supplier selection is considered as the most important step in the course of supply chain management, which helps in reducing the costs, improve the quality and deliver the products on time, thereby sustaining the intense pressure in the present global competing environment. Many researchers have done their research on supplier selection and evaluation, the processes which determine the success of any supply chain and proposed new ideas and methods for the same. Around 225 articles from various journals have been reviewed. Based on the research in the previous literature, all the papers have been classified into three categories ‐ conceptual approach, empirical study and analytical models. In this paper, we present a review of the past literature on supplier selection from 134 articles which include only the categories of conceptual approach and empirical study.