Using the analytic hierarchy process to rank foreign suppliers based on supply risks

Essential characteristics of suppliers are identified that must be considered in the supplier selection process. Risk to the disruption of company operations as it relates to the reliability of suppliers is described as a reliability chain. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is shown to be the appropriate methodology for evaluating and ranking potential suppliers. A realistic case study is presented in which a manufacturer evaluates and ranks its current foreign supplier against two other potential foreign suppliers based on several criteria of supply reliability.