Authors:
Bruno P. Bruck
1
;
Dario Vezzali
2
;
Manuel Iori
3
;
Carlo Alberto Magni
4
and
Daniele Pretolani
3
Affiliations:
1
Centro de Informática, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, 58058-600 João Pessoa, Brazil
;
2
“Marco Biagi” Foundation, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 41121 Modena, Italy
;
3
Department of Sciences and Methods for Engineering, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 42122 Reggio Emilia, Italy
;
4
Department of Economics “Marco Biagi”, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 41121 Modena, Italy
Keyword(s):
Supplier Selection, Global Service Providers, Multi-criteria Decision Analysis, Analytic Hierarchy Process, Decision Support System.
Abstract:
In this paper, we present a decision support system (DSS) developed for a global service provider (GSP), which solves a real-world supplier selection problem. The GSP operates in the Italian market of facility management, supplying customers with a variety of services. These services are subcontracted to external qualified suppliers spread all over Italy and chosen on the basis of several criteria, such as service quality, availability and proximity. Selecting the best supplier is a complex task due to the large number of suppliers and the great variety of facility management services offered by the GSP. In the proposed DSS, the choice of the best supplier for a certain service is made according to a thorough multi-criteria analysis. The weights for the criteria were generated by implementing both a simplified analytic hierarchy process and a revised Simos’ procedure, later validated by the decision makers at the GSP. The DSS provides quick access to historical performance data, visu
al tools to aid decisions, and a suggested ranked list of suppliers for each given contract. The effectiveness of the proposed system was assessed by means of extensive simulations on a seven-year period of real-data and several rounds of validation with the company.
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