Sustainable and agile manufacturing outsourcing partner selection: a literature review

[EN] Outsourcing to third party to manage non-core activities helps the firm to focus on core activities. Manufacturing firms are outsourcing product development, manufacturing, logistics, customer care etc. to enhance production capacity and flexibility, and to reduce operational costs, which in turn can improve profitability and competitive advantage of the enterprise. Sustainability in operations and supply chain is gaining momentum due to increased global environmental concern, pressures from consumers and communities, and enforced regulations. Volatile and uncertain business environment necessitates the adoption of agility and flexibility to effectively manage manufacturing and supply chain. Globalisation has made the market very competitive and hence manufacturing firms are adopting manufacturing outsourcing to third parties. Selecting a sustainable and agile manufacturing outsourcing partner (MPS) is crucial as it will improve sustainability, efficiency, and effectiveness of the supply chain and competitive advantage to the firm. Detailed literature review on sustainable and agile manufacturing outsourcing partner selection has been carried out from EBSCO data base and Goggle scholar. Selection criteria used are classified into agile, operational, economic, environmental and social. The techniques use are mostly multi criteria decision making methods (MCDM) while few have adopted programming techniques. Discussion, implication and the scope of future work is also provided.Akhtar, M. (2022). Sustainable and agile manufacturing outsourcing partner selection: a literature review. International Journal of Production Management and Engineering. 10(2):143-158. https://doi.org/10.4995/ijpme.2022.1680714315810

Supplier selection for smart supply chain: An adaptive fuzzy-neuro approach

In recent years, companies have experienced international changes that have occurred as a result of technological advances, market globalization, or natural disasters. So, organizations are trying to improve their performance in order to be more competitive. In other words, organizations’ competitiveness highly depends on their suppliers. At present, companies need to consider and include so-called ‘resilience’, ‘sustainability’, and ‘smartness’ in the supplier’s selection to retain a competitive advantage. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to present an intelligent decision-making model for selecting the appropriate suppliers. For doing so, a set of criteria evaluation was determined to respond to the novel era circumstances. The suggested work is helpful for academics as well as professionals as it emphasizes the importance of resilient-sustainable supplier selection in the digital era.N/

A novel stochastic fuzzy decision model for agile and sustainable global manufacturing outsourcing partner selection in footwear industry

Purpose – The decision-making to outsource and select the most suitable global manufacturing outsourcing partner (MOP) is complex and uncertain due to multiple conflicting qualitative and quantitative criteria as well as multiple alternatives. Vagueness and variability exist in ratings of criteria and alternatives by group of decision-makers (DMs). The paper provides a novel Stochastic Fuzzy (SF) method for evaluation and selection of agile and sustainable global MOP in uncertain and volatile business environment. Design/methodology/approach – Four main selection criteria for global MOP selection were identified such as economic, agile, environmental and social criteria. Total 16 sub-criteria were selected. To consider the vagueness and variability in ratings by group of DMs, SF method using t-distribution or z-distribution was adopted. The criteria weights were determined using the Stochastic Fuzzy-CRiteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (SF-CRITIC), while MOP selection was carried out using Stochastic FuzzyVIseKriterijumskaOptimizacija I KompromisnoResenje (SF-VIKOR) in the case study of footwear industry. Sensitivity analysis was performed to test the robustness of the proposed model. A comparative analysis of SFVIKOR and VIKOR was made. Findings – The worker’s wages and welfare, product price, product quality, green manufacturing process and collaboration with partners are the most important criteria for MOP selection. The MOP3 was found to be the best agile and sustainable global MOP for the footwear company. In sensitivity analysis, significance level is found to have important role in MOP ranking. Hence, the study concluded that integrated SF-CRITIC and SF-VIKOR is an improved method for MOP selection problem. Research limitations/implications – In a group decision making, ambiguity, impreciseness and variability are found in relative ratings. Fuzzy variant Multi-Criteria Decision-Making methods cover impreciseness in ratings but not the variability. On the other hand, deterministic models do not cover either. Hence, the stochastic method based on the probability theory combining fuzzy theory is proposed to deal with decision-making problems in imprecise and uncertain environments. Most notably, the proposed model has novelty as it captures and reveals both the stochastic perspective and the fuzziness perspective in rating by group of DMs. Practical implications – The proposed multi-criteria group decision-making model contributes to the sustainable and agile footwear supply chain management and will help the policymakers in selecting the best global MOP. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, SF method has not been used to select MOP in the existing literature. For the first time, integrated SF-CRITIC and SF-VIKOR method were applied to select the best agile and sustainable MOP under uncertainty. Unlike other studies, this study considered agile criteria along with triple bottom line sustainable criteria for MOP selection. The novel method of SF assessment contributes to the literature and put forward the managerial implication for improving agility and sustainability of global manufacturing outsourcing in footwear industry

Determinants of sourcing flexibility and its impact on performance

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. Sourcing flexibility is an increasingly important building block of supply chain flexibility. Our study which is grounded in information processing theory argues that two mechanisms can support firms in building up sourcing flexibility. Based on a survey of 336 manufacturing firms from Europe and the U.S. and using partial least squares (PLS) modeling as well as hierarchical regression analysis, we show that supplier evaluation and selection, and the integration of information systems at the buyer-supplier interface are positively related to sourcing flexibility. Sourcing flexibility, in turn, is curvilinearly related to delivery performance. Finally, delivery performance positively influences the product's financial performance. The strong associations between sourcing flexibility, delivery performance, and product financial performance underscore that sourcing flexibility merits the attention of supply chain managers during supplier selection and purchasing decisions

Supply Chain

Traditionally supply chain management has meant factories, assembly lines, warehouses, transportation vehicles, and time sheets. Modern supply chain management is a highly complex, multidimensional problem set with virtually endless number of variables for optimization. An Internet enabled supply chain may have just-in-time delivery, precise inventory visibility, and up-to-the-minute distribution-tracking capabilities. Technology advances have enabled supply chains to become strategic weapons that can help avoid disasters, lower costs, and make money. From internal enterprise processes to external business transactions with suppliers, transporters, channels and end-users marks the wide range of challenges researchers have to handle. The aim of this book is at revealing and illustrating this diversity in terms of scientific and theoretical fundamentals, prevailing concepts as well as current practical applications

Sustainable and Resilient Supplier Selection in the Context of Circular Economy: An Ontology-Based Model

Purpose: Selecting the optimal supplier is a challenging managerial decision that involves several dimensions that vary over time. Despite the considerable attention devoted to this issue, knowledge is required to be updated and analyzed in this field. This paper reveals new opportunities to advance supplier selection research from a multidimensional perspective. Moreover, this study aims to formalise supplier selection knowledge to enable the appropriate selection of sustainable, resilient and circular criteria. Design/methodology/approach: This study is developed in two stages. First, a systematic literature review is conducted to select relevant papers. Descriptive and thematic analyses are employed to analyze criteria, solving approaches and case studies. Second, a criterion knowledge-based framework is developed and validated by experts to be implemented as ontology using Protégé software. Findings: (1) Evaluating the viability of suppliers need further studies to integrate other criteria and to align supplier selection objectives with research advancement; (2) Artificial intelligence tools are needed to revolutionize and optimize the traditional techniques used to solve this problem; (3) Literature lucks frameworks for specific sectors; (4) The proposed ontology provides a consistent criteria knowledge base. Practical Implications: For academics, the results of this study highlight opportunities to improve the viable supplier selection process. From a managerial perspective, the proposed ontology can assist managers in selecting the appropriate criteria. Future works can enrich the proposed ontology and integrate this knowledge base into an information system. Originality/value: This study contributes to promoting knowledge about viable supplier selection. Capitalizing the knowledge base of criteria in a computer-interpretable manner supports the digitalization of this critical decision

Supplier Selection Criteria and Supply Chain Performance in Non-Governmental Organizations in Kenya

The Non-Governmental Organization plays  a  key role in  Kenya’s  development. That’s why many NGO’s have deployed strategies in the management of their supply chain. These strategies include the criteria in which the NGO’s select their suppliers’. Selection   of   suppliers   is   a   process   that   involves   multi-objective   decision, encompassing many tangible and intangible factors in a hierarchical manner and the applicability of the criteria used will depend on the product or service produced and the market for which these products or services is targeted. NGO’s aim of making the best decisions in choosing a criterion is to optimized supply chain performance. The overall objective of this research was to determine the factors that affect supplier selection decisions and also to establish the relationships between supplier selection criteria and supply chain performance of NGO’s in Kenya. The study focused on only. 48 highly active NGO’s in Kenya from a population of 2,507 NGO’s available in Kenya. Descriptive research design and proportionate random sampling were used to achieve the results. In this paper a set of supplier selection decision was adapted to design the questionnaire for practical survey. The results confirmed that supply chain decisions play a very important role in agreement with the criteria aligning with the NGO’s strategy. Successful management of the supply chain is the key to the long term success of an organization. Suppliers have to be selected carefully, as they can have a very positive or a very adverse impact on the   overall performance of the organization. Key Words: Non-Governmental Organization; Supply Chain; Supplier selection; Performanc

Fostering supply chain resilience for omni-channel retailers: A two-phase approach for supplier selection and demand allocation under disruption risks

This study aims to optimize supplier selection and demand allocation decisions for omni-channel (OC) retailers to achieve supply chain resilience under the potential disruption risks. A two-phase approach with resilience factors that covers three main sourcing issues (i.e., supplier evaluation, supplier selection, and demand allocation) is proposed to support the decision-making. In the first phase, we construct a five-dimensional evaluation framework for OC retailers to identify supplier preferences and a hybrid model that combines the best–worst method to determine the weights of the evaluation criteria and evidential reasoning to evaluate potential suppliers. In the second phase, the preferences obtained from multiple suppliers are integrated into a multi-objective mixed-integer linear programming model aiming to minimize expected cost and maximize total purchasing value and geographical segregation based on three key resilience strategies of multiple sourcing, geographic diversification, and local sourcing. The efficiency of the aforementioned resilience strategies as well as the solvability of the proposed model are then validated numerically using a real-world case study and various MOEAs. The outcomes could be used as a decision-making tool to assist OC retailers in the performance assessment and optimal demand allocation among the alternative suppliers by considering costs, purchase value, and resilience simultaneously