Implementation of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) for upstream management of apparel supply chain

Abstract

In the supply chain management one of the most important research areas is upstream management (such as supplier selection, order allocation etc.) and has been the subject of extensive research in the recent literature. Apparel manufacturers of Bangladesh are playing a vital role for the apparel supply chain and deal with a number of upstream players under different categories. The performance and contributions of the apparel manufacturers to the chain mainly depends on the upstream players. Therefore, this paper aims to design and implement a suitable methodology for upstream management of apparel manufacturers of Bangladesh. A structural framework consists of three phases was designed to cover the supplier selection criteria, supplier selection and order allocation. The first phase was an exploratory survey to select the key supplier selection criteria and the other phases were case study. In the second phase supplier were selected through the implementation of Analytical Hierarchy Process of a case and the last phase offered a guideline to allocate an order to the suppliers according to total score of each supplier. Total score of suppliers were calculated considering the satisfaction matrix of suppliers’ offer and weights matrix of Order Qualifier Criteria (OQC). The designed framework consists of seventeen criteria patterning under eight principal components as key factors for supplier selection decision variables for apparel manufacturers of Bangladesh. The upstream evaluation and selection of a 100% export oriented manufacturer results the company to reduce 65% suppliers through AHP model. The designed framework also consists of order allocation procedure using AHP weights of OQC and suppliers offers scorecard. The order allocation procedure extracts most satisfying offer to manufacturer from the selected suppliers. As the key factors for supplier selection were geographically limited to one industry and one country, implementing these to other geographical areas and industries may not be possible. But with a cross validation of the framework would widen its applicability to other areas. The paper provides a framework that allows other researchers to manage upstream of any supply chains.