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A Combined BWM & TOPSIS Approach for Supplier Selection: A Case Study of a Pharmaceutical Company in Bangladesh

Corresponding Author : Chowdury Md Luthfur Rahman (clr-ipe@sust.edu)

Authors : Tanmoy Palit , Sunny Md. Saber , Chowdury Md Luthfur Rahman

Keywords : Supplier Selection, Pharmaceutical Industry, BWM, TOPSIS, Multi-Criteria Decision-Making

Abstract :

Supplier selection is a critical activity having a substantial impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire supply chain. As the procurement of pharmaceutical raw materials involves multiple global suppliers, proper evaluation and selection of the best supplier are necessary for optimizing costs, enhancing productivity, and increasing profitability. The purpose of this article is to present a comprehensive method of pharmaceutical supplier selection using the combination of the Best Worst Method (BWM) and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). A case study was conducted at a pharmaceutical company in Bangladesh to check the viability of the method. In this study, an extensive literature review and expert opinion initially identified a set of eight evaluation criteria, which were then weighted and ranked by their importance using BWM. Then TOPSIS was applied to calculate the overall performance scores of seven suppliers against all the criteria and determine the best possible one for the case company. The proposed framework can be considered an innovative approach for the pharmaceutical industry as the findings indicate that the combined BWM and TOPSIS method is easily applicable and provides an effective solution to multi-criteria (tangible and intangible) supplier selection problems.

Published on December 31st, 2022 in Volume 32, Issue 2, Applied Sciences and Technology