A performance benchmarking system to support supplier selection

In today's competitive business environment, management of suppliers is essential for companies to monitor the value chain of the entire production network. Evidence suggests that undesirable occurrences in companies, such as extensive delays in the planned schedule, serious quality problems and cost overruns, are, to a certain extent, related to the unfulfilled promises of business partners. Subjective judgment and the lack of a systematic method for supplier selection hinder the analysis of the current and projected performance of the suppliers, which is necessary before making a final decision. This paper attempts to propose a generic model for supplier selection, focusing on the methodology to benchmark the potential suppliers and providing a comparison of performance measures based on a number of relevant criteria. To validate the feasibility of the proposed system, this paper makes use of existing AI tools that have been developed for selecting and benchmarking suppliers for manufacturing firms.