A case study of evaluating supplier´s selection criteria in a steel bars manufacturer

The supplier selection is a multi-criterion problem which includes both qualitative and quantitative criteria. In order to select the best suppliers it is necessary to make a trade off between these tangible and intangible criteria some of which may conflict. This study examines the difference between a president´ rating of the perceived importance of different supplier attributes and their actual choice of suppliers in an experimental setting. We use the normalization: an interview scale set of questions, to determine the importance of supplier attributes; and makes sure all criteria have the same range, to examine the choice of suppliers. The results indicate that although the president says that price is the most important attribute for a supplier, they actually choose suppliers based largely on financial and delivery.