Supplier's goal setting considering sustainability: An uncertain dynamic Data Envelopment Analysis based benchmarking model

Because of the growing awareness of balancing the economy, the society and the environment, there has been an increased focus on goal setting under sustainable context. However, underperforming suppliers may set impractical goals that are difficult to achieve in the short term due to the poor information analysis, which could cause benchmarking difficulties. Therefore, rather than focusing on a single ultimate goal, this paper developed an implementable goal sequence for which a dynamic Data Envelopment Analysis based benchmarking model was developed as a multi-period process. The indicators that could not be directly measured using numerical values were incorporated into the model as fuzzy numbers, and based on efficiencies, the suppliers were divided into several layers. A method that identified supplier attractiveness and progress was then introduced to select the most appropriate goal in each layer for the goal sequence. A numerical example is provided that illustrated the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed method to successfully identify the inefficient suppliers and determine a goal sequence that had three attainable goals. The sensitivity analysis and comparisons revealed that the proposed model avoided selecting period-inefficient suppliers and provided a better benchmarking process.