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1. ,, - - - . . / ', y ', '- - - : I \* I5(31 Q0I0) 34I-358 AsiaPacifc lvlanagentent llgview r€p. 1.1---l l \lJ ,o,"rr."pnra. *un",tm"nt.ncku.c,Ju.t,t A Nelv Algorithnr for Ranking Suppliersin Volume Discount Environments Reza Farzipoor Saen Departrnent of Industrial ll{atngentertt, Faailty of lv{anugeneiltaild A(:coturtirrg,Islanic Azad Universit.t'-Koraj o,,,!r'u[u'll',r'*l,u'u, Abstr:rct Purchasingoneof themostcrucial vitalactivities business, it hasa significant is and of as impactou finauce, of operations competitiveness the organization. and Many organiz;rtious are now allocating more resources outsourcing for activities iucrease to their conlpetitive position. Selecting aplrropriate an supplier outsourcing norvone of the mostimportairt for is decisions the purchasing generallydepends a numberof of department. This decision on different criteria. theotherhand,to encoursge buyers ordermore,suppliers the On to usually euvironments thepresence ofler volumediscounts. rank sLrppliers volume in in To discount of bothcardinal ordinaldata,thispaper proposes rrrnovative zrnd ar] algorithm, ivhichis based on (MRA). A numerical MinimaxRegret-based Approach example demonstrates application the of theproposed thod. me Keywords'.lmprecise envelopment ranking, mininpx regret-based data analysis, supplier approaclr, volume discount,supplychain 'l O. l IntrodJction' are Iacing intenseglobal competition and consequently Today, manufacturingcomparlies an incrediblepressureto reduce the cost and development time of a ner,vproduct. It is rvell proportion of the cost of a typical engineeringproduct is accounted known that a substantial purchases for in raw material,componentsand other supplies;on average,manufacturers' of goodsand sewicesamountsto 550/o revenue(Akarteet al., 2001). Purchasing thts one of is of the most crucial and vital activities of business, it has a significant irnpact on finance, as operationsand competitiveness the organization. this context, ontsourcingis rapidly In of gaining importance due to a number of reasonsrelated to cost, core competeiiceand managerial complexities of organization and activity specialization. Therefore, nlany are now allocating more resources outsourciugactivities to increase for their organizations competitive position. This is nrainly achieved by a judicious combiuation of in-house manulacturingand outsourcing *,vhile preservingthe core competencies the organization. of Supplierranking for oul.sourcing norv one of the most importantdecisionsof the purchasing is department, it his to fulfill the strategicgoals apart fi'om operationalrequirements the of as organization. Traditional Data EnvelopmentAnalysis (DEA) models require crisp inpLrt/output data. I{olvever, in real-rvorldproblems, especiallyin supplierselectionproblems, the inputs and outputsare often imprecise. Suppliers use discounts as a niarketing strategy to secure more purchase from their customers as aresponse competition.The suppliertriesto influence the buyer's ordering or to author. Il-maii: farzipour@yahoo.com Concsponding a A1 J +l