3.1 Determining Sustainable Suppliers’ Evaluation Criteria
The first step in evaluating suppliers is selecting appropriate criteria to properly
evaluate suppliers. In other words, these criteria should be in line with the goals of
the buyer and meet the needs of the customers. Proper and efficient evaluation
criteria help reducing risk in supplier selection (Memon et al. 2015) as well as
reducing operating costs (Wang et al. 2009). Given that in the sustainable supply
chain, simultaneous consideration is given to the three economic, social, and environmental concepts; therefore classification of evaluation indices in these three
dimensions takes place easily. Different classifications for supplier selection in the
supply chain have been put forward in various studies (Rezaei et al. 2014). This
classification has been also done in the supply chain sustainability paradigm. The
economic and business dimension criteria have been put forward in eight general
cases of cost, quality, time, flexibility, innovation, culture, technology, and communication. The criteria of this dimension of sustainability have been the focus of
researchers and managers in traditional supply chain approaches. One of the major
concerns of companies in collaborating with suppliers is delivering raw materials at
the appropriate time with the desired price and quality which are of the most
important issues in most supplier selection studies. In the past, social and environmental dimensions had not played any role in supplier selection, while now increasing awareness of environmental issues has made this factor recognized as a
competitive advantage for supply chain players (Diba and Xie 2019). However,
some supplier selection studies only emphasized on the environmental aspect (Bai
and Sarkis 2010), and others emphasized on both social and environmental aspects.
Environmental criteria were included in the categories of pollution control, pollution
prevention, environmental management systems, resource consumption, and pollution production. In the social dimension, the criteria fall into the categories of
employment, security and health, community concerns, the influence of contractual
stakeholders, and other stakeholders. A complete classification of sustainability
criteria is presented in Table 7.1.
3.2 Determining the Relative Importance of Each Evaluation
Indicator
The sustainable supplier evaluation problem is a multi-criteria decision-making
problem, since it comes with different (quantitative and qualitative) types of criteria
to evaluate suppliers. In multi-criteria decision-making problems, after determining
the criteria, their weights will be determined. Selection of decision-making technique for determining weights depends on factors such as independence and dependence of the criteria, less data, ease of computation, and greater consistency of
results. In the literature on supplier evaluation, some techniques have been used to
evaluate the weights of sustainability criteria in research. The most important of
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H. F. Lajimi
The first step in evaluating suppliers is selecting appropriate criteria to properly
evaluate suppliers. In other words, these criteria should be in line with the goals of
the buyer and meet the needs of the customers. Proper and efficient evaluation
criteria help reducing risk in supplier selection (Memon et al. 2015) as well as
reducing operating costs (Wang et al. 2009). Given that in the sustainable supply
chain, simultaneous consideration is given to the three economic, social, and environmental concepts; therefore classification of evaluation indices in these three
dimensions takes place easily. Different classifications for supplier selection in the
supply chain have been put forward in various studies (Rezaei et al. 2014). This
classification has been also done in the supply chain sustainability paradigm. The
economic and business dimension criteria have been put forward in eight general
cases of cost, quality, time, flexibility, innovation, culture, technology, and communication. The criteria of this dimension of sustainability have been the focus of
researchers and managers in traditional supply chain approaches. One of the major
concerns of companies in collaborating with suppliers is delivering raw materials at
the appropriate time with the desired price and quality which are of the most
important issues in most supplier selection studies. In the past, social and environmental dimensions had not played any role in supplier selection, while now increasing awareness of environmental issues has made this factor recognized as a
competitive advantage for supply chain players (Diba and Xie 2019). However,
some supplier selection studies only emphasized on the environmental aspect (Bai
and Sarkis 2010), and others emphasized on both social and environmental aspects.
Environmental criteria were included in the categories of pollution control, pollution
prevention, environmental management systems, resource consumption, and pollution production. In the social dimension, the criteria fall into the categories of
employment, security and health, community concerns, the influence of contractual
stakeholders, and other stakeholders. A complete classification of sustainability
criteria is presented in Table 7.1.
3.2 Determining the Relative Importance of Each Evaluation
Indicator
The sustainable supplier evaluation problem is a multi-criteria decision-making
problem, since it comes with different (quantitative and qualitative) types of criteria
to evaluate suppliers. In multi-criteria decision-making problems, after determining
the criteria, their weights will be determined. Selection of decision-making technique for determining weights depends on factors such as independence and dependence of the criteria, less data, ease of computation, and greater consistency of
results. In the literature on supplier evaluation, some techniques have been used to
evaluate the weights of sustainability criteria in research. The most important of
124
H. F. Lajimi