Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach (MCDA) for Supplier Selection

Research Paper Responses
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Research Paper Responses
Response 1
The study conducted by Lu et al. (2018) investigates a multi-criteria decision-making approach (MCDA) for supplier selection. MCDA is a systematic process to examine different choices available for a research area while encountering a particular situation. The choices would apply the most suitable decision to address gaps and serve as a solution to emerging problems. The study used the MCDA model to address social and environmental issues emerging in building sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) for manufacturing companies (Lu et al., 2018).
First, MCDA would define the decision opportunity for the researchers. The provided study used MCDA to address rising ecological challenges through SSCM and build competitive advantages for manufacturing companies (Lu et al., 2018). Second, MCDA would identify the fundamental interests of stakeholders while addressing the challenges. The study identified environmentalists, customers, legislative bodies, and other social players as the stakeholders for manufacturing companies that experience ecological pressures (Lu et al., 2018).
Subsequently, MCDA would create a decision framework for the subject audience. Lu et al. (2018) created an ‘Elimination Et Choix Traduisant la Realite (ELECTRE)’ framework to examine different alternatives through various matrices while measuring the choices. The researchers would rate the alternatives in the MCDA process. The researchers assigned weights based on social, economic, and environmental parameters. Lastly, the researchers would score the alternatives based on stakeholder interests. The weights would determine the most suitable alternative for the researchers to reach a concrete decision while addressing gaps and capitalizing on the opportunity for the subject audience.
Response 2
MCDA is a progressive process of making complex decisions for companies experiencing external pressures and dilemmas. The provided case used MCDA to apply SSCM methods for manufacturing companies. However, the authors claimed that MCDA is subjective and vague to apply to problem-solving situations. First, the criteria for decision-making could raise conflicts for different stakeholders regarding the subject. For instance, the research identified that SSCM requires detailed supplier evaluation. However, suppliers involve immense linguistic information and require subjective expert knowledge to ensure precision in the decision-making process. However, the expert knowledge could vary based on the previous experiences of decision-makers, causing a conflict among stakeholders while selecting a suitable alternative through MCDA (Lu et al., 2018). As a result, MCDA becomes subjective and creates vagueness for decision-makers.
Secondly, MCDA depends on previous information, trends, and external influences on functions, which mitigates flexibility for decision-makers. For instance, the research identified that experts could have different experiences, which could raise a conflict (Lu et al., 2018). However, MCDA creates a further problem of change in opinions due to the inflow of information from past investigations and external trends. The variation in judgments creates challenges for the decision-makers while assigning weights to identified alternatives through MCDA by compromising flexibility. Expert opinions could influence the weights at regular intervals, questioning the relevance of the decision-making process (Lu et al., 2018). Hence, the influences, different opinions, change preferences, and dependency on information makes the MCDA process subjective and vague when selecting suppliers for manufacturing companies.
Response 3
The researchers used three essential criteria for sustainable supplier selection in manufacturing firms. The three criteria include environmental, economic, and social parameters that involve different stakeholders for the manufacturing firm while making strategic decisions to achieve SSCM. The researchers used the ELECTRE framework to address the vagueness and subjectivity identified in the theoretical models applied in previous investigations. ELECTRE took the sensitivity of each criterion into account and assigned ...