Multiobjective Optimization for the Problem of Supplier Selection and Purchase of Hospital Supplies

This article proposes a method to assist in the management of purchases of hospital supplies used by the surgical center of a hospital. These are disposable medicines and supplies. The supplies are provided by different suppliers, each offering a specific set of items needed to meet the hospital's demand. In this problem, we seek to minimize the financial resources spent on the acquisition of items, while trying to use as few suppliers as possible. Objectives that are conflicting, and there is no single solution that optimizes them simultaneously. A biobjective integer optimization model is proposed and used the epsilon-constrained method to obtain the approximate Pareto boundary. In the computational tests, real data from a hospital in the interior of São Paulo were combined with information collected from the internet. In the analyses performed, the trade-offs between the number of suppliers and the costs of inputs are shown.