468 Int. J. Services and Operations Management, Vol. 33, No. 4, 2019
Copyright © 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
An efficient supplier selection model for hospital
pharmacy through fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS
P. Manivel* and Rajesh Ranganathan
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Coimbatore Institute of Technology,
Coimbatore, 641-014, Tamil Nadu, India
Email: manispn@gmail.com
Email: drrajeshranganathan@gmail.com
*Corresponding author
Abstract: This article investigates the significance of supplier selection process
in hospital pharmacy. Normally, high quality services, inventory and customer
satisfaction is influenced mostly by the supplier selection criteria such as cost,
delivery of the product, service, flexibility with the consumer, etc. The
uncertainty during supplier selection could be handled by MCDM techniques.
A methodology is developed to analyze the qualitative and quantitative
variables involved in the supplier selection process and it is illustrated with the
case study of a hospital pharmacy. This paper analyze the alternatives, criteria
and sub criteria of the supplier selection process by multi criteria decision
making approach of fuzzy analytic heuristic process (FAHP) and fuzzy
technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (FTOPSIS)
methods. Finally compare the results obtained by FAHP and FTOPSIS methods
and select the appropriate supplier which helps to improve the efficiency of the
pharmacy.
Keywords: supplier selection; fuzzy AHP; MCDM techniques; hospital
pharmacy; inventory; services; operations management.
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Manivel, P. and
Ranganathan, R. (2019) ‘An efficient supplier selection model for hospital
pharmacy through fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS’, Int. J. Services and
Operations Management, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp.468–493.
Biographical notes: P. Manivel is working as an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Coimbatore Institute of
Technology, Coimbatore. He is pursuing his PhD in the area of supply chain
management under the Anna University, Chennai. He published research
papers in the area of inventory management, supplier selection process, process
improvement in various conferences and journals of international and national
level.
Rajesh Ranganathan is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical
Engineering at the Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Coimbatore. He is also
the Director of the Centre of Excellence in Manufacturing Sciences at the
Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Coimbatore funded by Ministry of Human
Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India, New Delhi. He
completed his PhD degree from the Loughborough University, UK and the
author of the book titled Rapid Manufacturing: As an Enabling Technology in
Supply Chain Improvements. He published several research papers in various
international journals and delivered invited lectures in different institutions. His
research interests include additive manufacturing, supply chain management,
customisation, lean and agile manufacturing, etc.