Selection of Sustainable Supplier for Medical Centers with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) & Multi-Attributed Utility Theory (MAUT) Approaches

Abstract

<span>Background and Objectives: The selection of the sustainable supplier is important for any industry. Medical centers are not an exception in this case, and selecting the best sustainable supplier is a major step towards increasing their productivity. This paper, using the Data Envelopment Analysis and then using Multi-Attributed Utility Theory as a backup approach to fix errors, attempts to introduce the most important criteria and sub criteria for selecting the best sustainable supplier of medical equipment among domestic and foreign suppliers.</span><br /><span>Methods: After reviewing the previous papers, the 13 most important sub-criteria are extracted based on the 3 social, environmental and economic criteria. At first a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model is used to find the initial ranking for sustainable suppliers. Then the Multi-Attributed Utility Theory (MAUT) is employed as a secondary and backup approach to find the utility function. The data obtained are first examined in DEA and then by MAUT and the results are presented in the form of figures, tables and analytical results in the relevant section.</span><br /><span>Findings: Based on the 13 sub-criteria introduced at the end of the two-stage ranking, supplier C is selected as the best sustainable supplier.</span><br /><span>Conclusion: For initial ranking, DEA is a good method, but to find the utility function of the ranking, the use of MAUT is an effective method with a high degree of proximity.</span>