Novel method for decision making in the manufacturing environment

Abstract

Decision makers in the manufacturing sector frequently face the problem of assessing a wide range of alternative options and selecting one based on a set of conflicting attributes. There is a need for simple, systematic, and logical methods or mathematical tools to guide decision makers in considering a number of selection attributes and their interrelationships and in making right decisions. This paper proposes a novel multiple-attribute decision-making (MADM) method for solving the deterministic decision-making problems of the manufacturing environment. The method considers the objective weights of importance of the attributes as well as the subjective preferences of the decision maker to decide the integrated weights of importance of the attributes. Furthermore, the method uses fuzzy logic to convert the qualitative attributes into quantitative attributes. Three examples are presented to illustrate the potential of the proposed method.