Abstract
Selecting and evaluating suppliers is a major supply-chain concern for any company. It is even more crucial in pharmaceutical industries since delivering the right product to the right people at the right time requires specific conditions of storage and strict rules regarding expiry dates. In this context, supplier selection seems to be a complex task that involves a variety of conflicting criteria such as quality, performance history, guarantee policies, productive capacity, price and time. Therefore, many Multiple-criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods have been applied to solve the supplier selection problem. However, most methods address only the ranking and choice problems. Besides, evaluating suppliers with regard to each criterion involves the presence of uncertainties and heterogeneous information, i.e., qualitative and quantitative data. The objective of this work is to propose a sorting MCDM model for pharmaceutical supplier selection under multiple uncertainties and heterogeneous information. The proposed model is based on an integration of the FlowSort and SMAA methods and Fuzzy theory. It allows pharmaceutical companies to develop a rating system to classify suppliers into categories, as actual and potential suppliers, in a context with multiple uncertainties and heterogeneous data information.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Almeida-Dias, J., Figueira, J., & Roy, B. (2010). Electre Tri-C: A multiple criteria sorting method based on characteristic reference actions. European Journal of Operational Research, 204(3), 565–580.
Almeida-Dias, J., Figueira, J., & Roy, B. (2012). A multiple criteria sorting method where each category is characterized by several reference actions: The Electre Tri-nC method. European Journal of Operational Research, 217(3), 567–579.
American Hospital Association. AHA survey on drug shortages (2011).
Araz, C. (2007). Multi-criteria based novel strategic sourcing methodologies. Ph.D. Thesis, Dokuz Eyll University.
Araz, C., & Ozkarahan, I. (2007). Supplier evaluation and management system for strategic sourcing based on a new multicriteria sorting procedure. International Journal of Production Economics, 106(2), 585–606.
Behzadian, M., Kazemzadeh, R., Albadvi, A., & Aghdasi, M. (2010). Promethee: A comprehensive literature review on methodologies and applications. European Journal of Operational Research, 200(1), 198–215.
Ben Amor, S., Martel, J. M., & Guitouni, A. (2015). A synthesis of information imperfection representations for decision aid. Information Systems and Operational Research, 53(2), 68–77.
Brans, J., Vincke, P., & Mareschal, B. (1986). How to select and how to rank projects: The promethee method. European Journal of Operational Research, 24(2), 228–238.
Campos, A. C. S. M., Mareschal, B., & de Almeida, A. T. (2015). Fuzzy flow sort: An integration of the flowsort method and fuzzy set theory for decision making on the basis of inaccurate quantitative data. Information Sciences, 293, 115–124.
Canada Pharmacists Association. Canadian drug shortages survey (2010).
Chai, J., Liu, J. N., & Ngai, E. W. (2013). Application of decision-making techniques in supplier selection: A systematic review of literature. Expert Systems with Applications, 40(10), 3872–3885.
Chen, S., & Hwang, C. (1992). Fuzzy multiple attribute decision making: Methods and applications (1st ed.). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Durbach, I. N., & Stewart, T. J. (2012). Modeling uncertainty in multi-criteria decision analysis. European Journal of Operational Research, 223(1), 1–14.
Ertay, T., Kahveci, T., & Tabanl, R. (2011). An integrated multi-criteria group decision-making approach to efficient supplier selection and clustering using fuzzy preference relations. International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 24(12), 1152–1167.
European Association of Hospital Pharmacists. Medicine shortages in European hospitals (2013).
Figueira, J., De Smet, J., Mareschal, B., & Brans, J. (2004). MCDA methods for sorting and clustering problems: PROMETHEE TRI and PROMETHEE cluster. Technical Report TR/SMG/2004-002, Universit Libre de Bruxelles.
Fox, E., Sweet, B., & Jensen, V. (2014). Drug shortages: A complex health care crisis. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 89(3), 361–373.
Govindan, K., & Jepsen, M. B. (2016). ELECTRE: A comprehensive literature review on methodologies and applications. European Journal of Operational Research, 250(1), 1–29.
Govindan, K., & Jepsen, M. B. (2016). Supplier risk assessment based on trapezoidal intuitionistic fuzzy numbers and ELECTRE TRI-C: A case illustration involving service suppliers. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 67(2), 339–376.
Govindan, K., Rajendran, S., Sarkis, J., & Murugesan, P. (2015). Multi criteria decision making approaches for green supplier evaluation and selection: A literature review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 98, 66–83. Special Volume: Support your future today! Turn environmental challenges into opportunities.
Guarnieri, P., & De Almeida, A. T. (2016). A multicriteria decision model for collaborative partnerships in supplier strategic management. Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Systems, 15(03), 101–131.
Janssen, P., & Nemery, P. (2013). An extension of the flowsort sorting method to deal with imprecision. 4OR, 11(2), 171–193.
Kadziński, M., & Tervonen, T. (2013). Stochastic ordinal regression for multiple criteria sorting problems. Decision Support Systems, 55(1), 55–66.
Kim, P., Simoens, S., Casteels, M., & Huys, I. (2015). Insights into european drug shortages: A survey of hospital pharmacists. PLoS ONE, 10(3), 1–13.
Lahdelma, R., Hokkanen, J., & Salminen, P. (1998). SMAA—Stochastic multiobjective acceptability analysis. European Journal of Operational Research, 106(1), 137–143.
Lahdelma, R., Miettinen, K., & Salminen, P. (2002). Stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis using achievement functions. Turku Centre for Computer Science Technical Report Series, 459.
Lahdelma, R., & Salminen, P. (2001). SMAA-2: Stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis for group decision making. Operations Research, 49(3), 444–454.
Lahdelma, R., & Salminen, R. (2010). A method for ordinal classification in multicriteria decision making. In International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Applications, pp. 420–425.
Morrissey, J. (2012). The drug shortage. Hospitals & Health Networks, 86(1), 46–50.
Nemery, P., Campos, A. C. S. M., Mareschal, B., & de Almeida, A. T. (2015). Addendum on: “Fuzzy FlowSort: An integration of the FlowSort method and fuzzy set theory for decision making on the basis of inaccurate quantitative data”. Information Sciences, 315(Supplement C), 54–55.
Nemery, P., & Lamboray, C. (2008). Flow sort: A flow-based sorting method with limiting or central profiles. TOP, 16(1), 90–113.
Pelissari, R., Oliveira, M. C., Ben Amor, S., Abackerli, A. J. (2019). A new FlowSort-based method to deal with information imperfections in sorting decision-making problems. European Journal of Operational Research, 276(1), 235–246.
R Development Core Team. (2008). R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. ISBN 3-900051-07-0.
Roy, B. (1991). The outranking approach and the foundations of ELECTRE methods. Theory and Decision, 31, 49–73.
Saaty, T. (1990). How to make a decision: The analytic hierarchy process. European Journal of Operational Research, 24(6), 19–43.
Schwartzberg, E., Ainbinder, D., Vishkauzan, A., & Gamzu, R. (2017). Drug shortages in Israel: Regulatory perspectives, challenges and solutions. Israel Journal of Health Policy Research, 6(1), 17.
Simi, D., Kovaevi, I., Svirevi, V., & Simi, S. (2017). 50 years of fuzzy set theory and models for supplier assessment and selection: A literature review. Journal of Applied Logic, 24, 85–96. SI:SOCO14.
Tervonen, T., Figueira, J. R. J., Lahdelma, R., Dias, J. A. J., & Salminen, P. (2009). A stochastic method for robustness analysis in sorting problems. European Journal of Operational Research, 192(1), 236–242.
Tervonen, T., & Lahdelma, R. (2007). Implementing stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis. European Journal of Operational Research, 178(2), 500–513.
The Multi-Stakeholder Steering Committee on Drug Shortages in Canada. (2017). Preventing Drug Shortages: Identifying Risks and Strategies to Address Manufacturing-Related Drug Shortages in Canada.
Ventola, C. (2011). The drug shortage crisis in the United States: Causes, impact, and management strategies. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 36(11), 740–757.
Vetschera, R. (2017). Deriving rankings from incomplete preference information: A comparison of different approaches. European Journal of Operational Research, 258(1), 244–253.
Weber, C. A., Current, J. R., & Benton, W. (1991). Vendor selection criteria and methods. European Journal of Operational Research, 50(1), 2–18.
Yu, W. (1992). ELECTRE TRI: Aspects mthodologiques et manuel d’utilisation. Document du LAMSADE 74, Universit-Paris-Dauphine.
Zopounidis, C., & Doumpos, M. (1999). A multicriteria decision aid methodology for sorting decision problems: The case of financial distress. Computational Economics, 14(3), 197–218.
Zopounidis, C., & Doumpos, M. (2002). Multicriteria classification and sorting methods: A literature review. European Journal of Operational Research, 138, 229–246.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by CAPES, the Brazilian Government Agency that supports Higher Education Personnel.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pelissari, R., Ben-Amor, S., de Oliveira, M.C. (2019). A Multiple-Criteria Decision Sorting Model for Pharmaceutical Suppliers Classification Under Multiple Uncertainties. In: Barbosa-Povoa, A., Jenzer, H., de Miranda, J. (eds) Pharmaceutical Supply Chains - Medicines Shortages. Lecture Notes in Logistics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15398-4_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15398-4_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-15397-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-15398-4
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)