Selection of Key Component Vendor from the Aspects of Capability, Productivity, and Reliability

In a technology-driven industry, the appropriate vendors/suppliers can effectively contribute to cobusiness development profits. Key component vendors help dynamically drive solution design firms to achieve strong performances, especially when an integrated circuit (IC) component that has technical know-how specifications dominates an electronic solution design. This paper presents a systematic framework to examine the decision process for the selection of wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) IC vendor alternatives from the business ecosystem aspect in order to review the importance of buyer-supplier synergistic effects. We implement the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process technique which incorporates a vendor's capability, productivity, and reliability characteristics into a hierarchical structure and deploys decision experts' judgments along with vague data analysis to solve a real-world problem faced by a leading company specialized in the research and design of wireless networking solutions. The findings indicate the Taiwanese local vendor is the top priority for alternatives selection, and the results contribute significant values to the design firm's operation management.