Supplier selection paradigm: An integrated hierarchical QFD methodology under multiple-criteria environment

A concurrent engineering approach integrating analytic hierarchy process (AHP) with quality function deployment (QFD) in combination with cost factor measure (CFM) has been delineated to rank and subsequently select candidate-suppliers under multiple, conflicting-in-nature criteria environment within a value-chain framework. Engineering requirements and customer requirements governing the selection decision have been identified. The hierarchical QFD methodology allows the decision maker (DM) to rank the candidate-suppliers considering both CFM and the subjective factors. The sensitivity of the proposed methodology is elucidated considering a parameter called objective factor decision weight. The devised methodology has been tested with the dataset adopted from Yahya and Kingsman [89]. Liu and Hai [51] tested their model with the same dataset. A comparative analysis using design of experiment has been elucidated so as to demonstrate the efficacy of the devised hierarchical concurrent engineering approach.