An improved multi-choice goal programming approach for supplier selection problems

In this study, a supplier selection problem is first modeled as a multi-objective optimization problem with three minimization objectives: price, rejects and lead-time. In reality, the objectives may have different relative weights. In addition, due to uncertainty/imprecision, it may be easier for decision makers to determine an interval goal or aspiration level for every objective, instead of a single one. Also, the decision makers may have other preferences such as the purchasing cost not significantly exceeding the budget. For this purpose, a new multi-choice goal programming (MCGP) approach is proposed. One of the main advantages of the proposed model is that it provides the decision makers with more control over their preferences. Finally, an illustrative example demonstrates the effectiveness of our proposed model.