Transportation-driven supplier selection and order allocation in supply chains

Supplier selection and transportation are critical to supply chain management, as they directly affect purchasing performance and material flow efficiency. However, balancing procurement and transportation costs while ensuring supply reliability remains insufficiently addressed in the literature. This paper explores the impact of transportation on supplier selection and order allocation by proposing a multi-criteria decision support model based on mathematical programming. The model minimises total costs, including purchasing, ordering, transportation, and inventory, while considering delivery quality, supplier capacity, and buyer demand, with inventory managed across multiple stages encompassing suppliers, transit, and buyer. It then determinesefficient suppliers and optimal order quantities assigned to each. To validate the model, it was applied to a real-world case in the French railway sector. The results demonstrate that integrating transportation planning into the supplier selection process reduces costs while enhancing supply chain reliability and overall performance. The study also highlights relevant directions for future research.