Synthesis of Main Criteria, Methods and Issues of Multicriteria Supplier Selection

The purpose of this paper is to identify the main criteria considered in supplier selection, the main methods used and sub-problems in a multicriteria context. The tasks of identifying the best suppliers of new products or services or even for evaluating the performance of an existing supplier is essential to supply chain management (SCM). In order to perform these tasks properly, and considering the multicriteria nature of supplier selection, it is necessary to include an approach using aggregation of criteria, primarily chosen depending on the objectives of the decision, types of criteria to be used and the rationality of the decision maker. In order to achieve this objective this research used a systematic literature review of articles published in ISI Web of Knowledge and Scopus for the period 2001-2012 following the protocol proposed by Cronin, Ryan and Coughlan (2008). In addition to synthesizing knowledge about the subject, the article highlights the key criteria, methods and sub-problems of selection of suppliers, contributing by identifying the aspects that should be developed in future studies. It also provides managers with existing approaches to making decisions about supplier selection in a systematic way.