Selecting Green Suppliers with Analytic Hierarchy Process for Biotechnology Industry

Abstract

The biotechnology industry is recognized as one of the industries of the 21st century with the most potential. The Taiwanese government accordingly has included the biotechnology industry as part of the project entitled ``Two-Trillion-Twin-Stars{''}. Under current environmental protection regulations, the pressures related to the green industrial revolution are being intensified. Enterprises collaboratively executing green supply chain management with suppliers are urgently needed. One crucial step of supply chain management is to select appropriate partners. Green supplier selection is conducted by embedding the environmental protection concept within supplier evaluation processes. The primary intention of this study is to investigate the selection process for green suppliers in the biotechnology industry via utilization of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The research study collaboratively establishes a set of green supplier evaluation criteria and designs the evaluation processes. In short, the objectives are twofold: (1) to establish collaborative evaluation criteria of green suppliers utilizing AHP; and (2) to construct evaluation processes according to the aforementioned set of criteria. The findings of this research suggest that the major concerns in terms of green supplier selection for biotechnology companies are currently cGMP certification, established environmental policies, and product acknowledgement. Also, an evaluation form consisting of green criteria and weights is constructed to facilitate the selection process.