Study on the ANP and DEAs Quantitative Evaluation Method for the Product Innovation Supplier in Supply Chain

The strategic focus of enterprises is shifting from the traditional production-centered model to a creation-centered model due to the changes in the manufacturing environment. In order to adapt themselves to the fiercely competitive market environment, more and more enterprises are cutting across the boundary of enterprises to develop new products jointly with other enterprises in the supply chain. Selection of suppliers has become increasingly complex because of the rapidly changing environment and the dynamic nature of agreements between enterprises and suppliers. Traditional evaluation methods are no longer adequate to evaluate and select the best supplier. The enterprise needs a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods for evaluating potential suppliers in the supply chain and selecting the appropriate ones. This paper integrates DEA with ANP, and proposed a new decision model for the supplier evaluation. A case of product-end manufacturer proves the proposed model is scientific and well applicable.

1. Introduction

Along with the knowledge economy arrivals, the manufacturing industry is facing with enormous challenges and competitions. The customer demand diversification in custom-made is added by the high technology, and new technology unceasing development causes the product life cycle to reduce unceasingly. The manufacturing industry is facing with lots of problems, e.g. reducing product development cycle, improving the product quality, reducing the cost and improving service pressure. Thus enterprises are requested to make a rapid reaction unceasingly to the changed market and develop continuously to meet the users' need. The custom-made personalized products are used to seize the market and win the competition. The market competition also focuses on launching new product development competition for below reasons, i.e., firstly the supplier superiority in technology is employed to do many things such as enhancing the product innovation, increasing the benefit, improving the core enterprise production, reducing the production cost, and solving enterprise question; secondly the cross enterprise cooperation (including the suppliers in product innovation flow) is satisfied to enhance the product development speed, make a rapid response to the fast shift market demand, and win the biggest competitive advantage. If it takes the dynamic alliance as the foundation agile manufacture which produces in this kind of competition environment, and therefore a method is needed in choosing better suppliers. The quantitative evaluation for suppliers is an exercisable tool to evaluate effectively the performances of supply chains, and boost the long-term cooperation between the suppliers and the purchasers.