Track: Operations Research

Abstract

To ensure business sustainability, businesses seek reliable suppliers that can meet their customer's expectations. Selecting reliable suppliers can be a winning strategy providing a competitive advantage in the market over competitors. Therefore, unlike many other operational functions, supplier selection is regarded as a strategic function within companies. However, when evaluating and selecting suppliers, procurement departments must build their selection process based on certain factors that they deem most important to their business activities. The food and beverage industry is not an exception to this scenario. The purpose of this study is to reveal the set of the most critical factors of supplier selection in the food and beverage industry of Saudi Arabia. A designed survey was conducted to collect information about factors that play a major role in supplier selection from the perspective of decision-makers, supply chain professionals, and procurement officers in the food and beverage manufacturing companies of Saudi Arabia. Subsequently, The Fuzzy Technique of Order Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (Fuzzy-TOPSIS) approach was used to rank the factors based on their importance. The findings of the study revealed a ranked set of 35 critical factors influencing supplier selection. The top five critical factors are speed, demand capability, customer service, communication system, and responsiveness. Implications of this study include assisting the food and beverage industry of Saudi Arabia for a better supplier selection using the revealed set of ranked critical factors as selection criteria.