Cost-benefit AHPSort for performance analysis of offshore providers

The performance of a company is largely affected by that of its providers as they are a direct factor that determines product prices, flexibility and quality. It is therefore important to measure their performance. Several aspects need to be measured but traditional multi-criteria decision methods (MCDM) do not benchmark but only rank providers. Multi-criteria decision sorting methods are well indicated to benchmark activities into classes. In this paper, we present a modification of the AHPSort sorting method, where cost and benefit criteria are kept separate for a better and easier comparison. A case study in the aerospace industry will illustrate the efficacy of the new Cost-Benefit AHPSort method. The results will help managers to make specific decisions concerning their current offshore providers. They will also give valuable feedback for providers in order to improve their performance. Additionally, the findings enable a definition of benchmarking that will support future evaluations.