Abstract
Selecting a supplier for highly technical and expensive equipment as a weather radar is a very demanding process and a critical management task for procurement team. For such problems, the use of multiple criteria analysis is welcome. This paper introduces a decision aid model for weather radar supplier selection using a multi-attribute approach for public purchase procedures. As a model application, we developed the framework on a real public procurement to expand the weather radar network in Brazil, where two attributes were in conflict (cost and technical). The proposed model was demonstrated to be very useful in understanding the trade-off between cost and technical attributes, based on the stakeholders’ preferences. The model also supported the decision-maker in the negotiation process to receive better commercial or technical proposals from the buyers’ perspective. Based on these findings, it is advocated that for highly specialised equipment, a single attribute method centred on the lowest-cost bid is no longer supportive and robust enough in contemporary supplier selection. Modelling a multi-attribute decision process could also be a guide to improve interaction with expert and management teams in future weather radar selection evaluations.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to all interviewees’ availability and support, and to Isztar Zawadzki, who provided substantial suggestions that helped in improving our draft. The authors would like to thank two anonymous referees, who offered valuable comments to improve the quality of this work. We also are grateful to the Editors, who kindly granted additional time for the paper’s revision. This work was partially supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development of Brazil (CNPq) under grant 232898/2014-6 and 234876/2014-0; and Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) under grant 2017/25767-3. Any opinions, findings, conclusions presented in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the CNPq or FAPESP. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Appendices
Appendix A
See Table 9.
Appendix B
2.1 Sensitivity analysis
Besides specific bias criteria, it is important to understand how buyers think in a WR selection, and how to model these preferences as an integrated decision-aiding process. To comprehend these perceptions we, therefore, apply sensitivity analysis by varying the values of the weights of the top-level attribute. Sensitivity analysis of weights consists of analysing the changes that may occur in the overall ranking for the bidding when the relative weight of a given attribute is changed. In other words, it is feasible to evaluate the potential change in the recommendation when the weights were modified, maintaining the proportion among other weights. Figure
Variation of the weight of technical attributes with modification of alternative ranking
3 shows the variation in the WR supplier ranking of technical attribute (higher weight).
The technical attribute has a weight equal to 0.6 in the original decision model. However, if the weight increases to 0.66—that is, the decision-maker changes 10% of their technical preferences against the cost attribute (wc = 0.34), the outcome will change to Radar ‘A’ maintaining all the criteria conditions presented in the proposal (Tables 3 and 4).
This finding shows that a multi-attribute approach is suitable to understanding and translating the buyers’ preferences into a quantitative model to aid in the decision-making process. These results are consistent with other studies in the literature. Bana-e-Costa et al. (2002); Caruzzo et al. (2016); Kurth et al. (2017) also found that for public calls for tender or governmental decisions, the multi-attribute analysis provides a structured and formal model for this kind of governmental demand and at the same time aids them scientifically (consistent) in applying their public resources allocation in a complex decision-making problem. Additionally, Vuola and Hameri (2006); Nikou et al. (2017) said the set of criteria is a better technique for making good choices when a public procurement was for high-technology apparatus and has a multidimensional context than simply considering a single attribute, such as cost.
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Caruzzo, A., Blanco, C.M.R. & Joe, P. Developing a multi-attribute decision aid model for selection of a weather radar supplier. Environ Syst Decis 40, 371–384 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10669-020-09770-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10669-020-09770-3