Abstract
In today’s rapid growth of healthcare services and the dynamic
challenges facing healthcare organizations, it is extremely essential for
decision makers to have reliable decision support tools in order to make
fast, right and precise decisions. One of the decision-making parts is
supplier selection in pharmaceutical merchants. Supplier selection is a
multi-criteria decision-making process that deals with the optimization of
conflicting objectives such as price, quality, and delivery. If it is not
supported by a suitable system, this would be a complex and time
consuming process.
In this thesis, two methodologies are utilized as the core system to build
the multi-criteria decision-making, Fuzzy Logic and Analytical
Hierarchy Process (AHP). Ministry of Health (MOH) in the Kingdom of
Bahrain was used as the real case study example for this thesis. The study
initiated with purchasing behavior and supplier selections literature
review. Subsequently, a qualitative research method of interview and
quantitative research method of questionnaires were utilized to identify
the evaluation criteria used by experts in MOH. After identifying the
criteria of supplier selection from the literature and the one in practice in
MOH, data is fed to the constructed fuzzy expert system in MATLAB
programming environment and with AHP in Microsoft Excel spread
sheets. Based on the results, supplier with the total highest score becomes
the most suitable alternative. In addition, sensitivity analysis is carried
out using AHP method; the result shows that the developed AHP
model is more stable. A number of recommendations are made to
MOH, aiming to improve the procurement practices and trying to include
modern business practices, using IT and modern technological tools in
healthcare procurement practices.