The analytical hierarchy process in the supplier selection problem

The Supplier Selection Problem (SSP) consists of analyzing and measuring the performance of a set of suppliers in order to rank and select them with the general objective of improving the competitiveness of the entire supply system. In the analysis, as many factors should be taken into account, very often conflicting with each other, the problem can be tackled using multicriteria models and methods. A survey of the scientific literature highlights that the most used methodology is the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) with its variants. In this work a careful scrutiny of the papers appeared on international scientific journals in the recent years on the SSP is provided. In particular the analysis focuses on the use of AHP and its variants to solve different aspects of the problem. The results of the study allow individuating opportunities and open issues arising by the use of multi-criteria approaches, with particular reference to AHP-based models, to model the SSP.