Selection of Concrete Production Facility Location Integrating Fuzzy AHP with TOPSIS Method

Evaluation and selection of a concrete production facility location is an important strategic decision making problems for both the public and private sector. The multi-dimensional, multi-criteria nature of the concrete production facility location problem limits the usefulness of any particular single objective model. In this study, social, economical, technological, environmental, and transportation factors and sub criteria have been derived to make the optimal concrete production facility location selection decision more realistic and effectual. This study shows an improved and appropriate concrete production facility location evaluation and selection model has been developed by integrating Modified Delphi and Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) with Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method. An example is presented to show applicability and performance of the proposed methodology followed by a sensitivity analysis to discuss and explain the results. DOI: 10.4018/ijpmat.2012010104 International Journal of Productivity Management and Assessment Technologies, 1(1), 40-59, January-March 2012 41 Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. investment. And concrete is preferred as a construction material increasingly. In recent years, to meet the construction needs concrete production facilities have been built in different areas. The problem of facility location is common to all businesses. The strategic planning of facility location is critical to a company’s eventual success. A suitable location can provide favorable contributions to a company’s market competitiveness. More and more firms are clearly dispersing parts of their production process to locations around the world to take advantage of national differences in the cost and quality of labor, talent, energy, facilities and capital (Partovi, 2006). The decision of the location selection of concrete production facility is a crucial aspect as it depends on multiple factors or constraints like economical, environmental, social, political, technological etc. (Cazacliu and Ventura, 2010; Chowdhurya, Apul, and Fry, 2010; Rajendran and Gambatese, 2007; Turhan et al., 2010; Zapata and Gambatese, 2005). In this complex and conflicting situation, a multi criteria analysis (MCA) is inevitable for locating concrete production facility where both quantitative and qualitative objectives can be considered. Real-life applications of multicriteria decisionmaking methods require the processing of imprecise, uncertain, qualitative or vague data (Joshi, Banwet, and Shankar, 2011; Kabir and Hasin, in press; Rajesh, Pugazhendhi, and Ganesh, 2009). Therefore the main objective of this research is to formulate a decision support model (system), which would facilitate in the decision making and to evaluate the best concrete production facility location among a set of discrete potential locations. An improved and more accurate concrete production facility location evaluation and selection model has been developed by integrating modified Delphi method and Fuzzy AHP with TOPSIS method. The Delphi method is an iterative process used to collect and distill the judgments of experts using a series of questionnaires interspersed with feedback. Therefore, it de-livers qualitative as well as quantitative results and has beneath its explorative, predictive even normative elements. The Delphi technique is an appropriate methodology for identifying the significant factors and issues for the evaluation and selection of power substation location (Rajesh, Pugazhendhi, and Ganesh, 2011; Vidal, Marle, and Bocquet, 2011). Fuzzy logic (FL) is a method for understanding, quantifying and dealing with vague, ambiguous and uncertain characteristics, ideas and judgments (Kabir and Hasin, 2011; Rajesh et al., 2009). Fuzzy AHP is being used more and more frequently in multi-criteria decisionmaking because of its simplicity and similarity to human reasoning. This method is suitable for use in evaluating policies (including tangible and intangible information). Furthermore the FAHP also allows group decision-making to derive priorities based on sets of pair wise comparisons (Kabir and Hasin, 2012). TOPSIS technique is based on the concept that the ideal alternative has the best level for all attributes considered, whereas the negative-ideal is the one with all the worst attribute values. A closeness coefficient is defined to determine the ranking order of alternatives which is simultaneously the farthest from the negative-ideal and the closest to the ideal alternative (Joshi, Banwet, and Shankar, 2011; Kutlu and Ekmekçioglu, 2012; Rajesh, Pugazhendhi, and Ganesh, 2009). The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In the next section, the proposed methodology has been described with brief note on modified Delphi method, fuzzy AHP technique and TOPSIS method. The proposed methodology is applied to evaluate and select the optimal location of a concrete production facility in Bangladesh in the following section. Finally, the last section presents the conclusion and discusses the limitations and scope for future research. 2. THE PROPOSED METHODOLOGY Fuzzy multiple attribute decision-making (FMADM) methods have been developed owing to the imprecision in assessing the relative 18 more pages are available in the full version of this document, which may be purchased using the "Add to Cart" button on the product's webpage: www.igi-global.com/article/selection-concrete-productionfacility-location/69513?camid=4v1 This title is available in InfoSci-Journals, InfoSci-Journal Disciplines Business, Administration, and Management. Recommend this product to your librarian: www.igi-global.com/e-resources/libraryrecommendation/?id=2