A neural networks model for green supplier selection

摘要

There have been studies on supplier selection in the past. But organisations today are also interested in evaluating their suppliers on green and sustainability criteria. With increasing awareness of green and sustainable processes and products, there is pressure on the organisations to select only green suppliers for their operations. While this is a step towards more responsible organisations, managing the suppliers of an organisation becomes an important task. This clearly warrants a structured approach for evaluation of suppliers on green and sustainability criteria. This paper models the relationship between these criteria and the supplier selection. A neural networks model is used for analysis of the data obtained from samples in the Indian automotive industry. MATLAB is used for analysis of the neural networks model. This model captures any nonlinear relationship between the inputs and performs better compared to many other techniques. The output of the neural networks model is used for rating a supplier and hence to arrive at a decision. This model is helpful for managers as it acts as an objective assessment criterion for suppliers.