V. Athawale

ABSTRACT Facility layout selection is an important and critical issue faced by every organization, while setting up and allocating the available or new facilities in a given location. While selecting the most suitable layout, due attention is usually paid to minimize the total transportation cost between different facilities. The importance of an effective facility layout design for efficient and smooth operation of an organization cannot be overlooked. It is well-recognized that a suitably designed facility layout represents the backbone of an organization and should be carefully organized. Placement of the available or new facilities within a selected area is a complex task for the designer, which requires the fulfilment of several conflicting objectives. It is therefore important for an organization to evaluate, design and select the most suitable layout for its functional effectiveness. Selecting the best facility layout for an industrial application from a finite set of candidate alternatives is an example of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) problem. In this paper, two real time examples of facility layout selection are presented to demonstrate the applicability of a highly potential MCDM method, i.e., PROMETHEE (Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment Evaluation). It is observed that the rankings of the alternative layouts obtained using the PROMETHEE II method almost match with those derived by the past researchers, which proves the potentiality of this method to solve such type of complex MCDM problems.

ABSTRACT For any manufacturing or service organization, selecting the right upstream suppliers is a key success factor that will significantly reduce purchasing cost, increase downstream customer satisfaction and improve competitive ability. There are several quantitative as well as qualitative criteria, like quality, on-time delivery, price, performance history, warranty policy, technical and productive capability, financial stability, delivery lead time, problem solving capability, expertise, experience and reputation which primarily affect the supplier selection decision in any organization. Supplier selection is a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) problem because the selection process mainly involves evaluating the performance of a number of suppliers according to a set of common criteria to meet the business needs. Although various mathematical techniques have already been attempted to solve the supplier selection problems, this paper explores the application of Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) method to select the most suitable supplier for a given manufacturing organization. Two real time examples are illustrated to validate the applicability and usefulness of the MCDM method.

ABSTRACT There is a vast array of materials with diverse mechanical, physical and chemical properties from which the design engineer has to choose the most suitable material satisfying different design requirements. The design engineer has to take into account also a large number of material selection criteria before arriving at the final decision, otherwise, there may be premature failure of the product during its operation. As the material selection decision for a specific product involves multiple conflicting criteria and a finite set of candidate alternatives, it is an example of multi-criteria decision-making problem. In this article, 10 most commonly used multi-criteria decision-making methods are considered and their relative performance are compared with respect to the rankings of the alternatives while selecting suitable materials for (a) a sailing boat mast, (b) a flywheel, and (c) a cryogenic storage tank. It is observed that for these three examples, all the 10 methods give almost the same rankings of the alternative materials, although VIKOR method has a relatively better performance than the others due to its computational simplicity. On the other hand, analytic hierarchy process has a comparatively poor performance which may be due to the decision maker’s involvement in making the pairwise comparisons between the criteria and alternatives introducing a chance of biasness and inconsistency in the decision-making process. It can be concluded that for a given material selection problem, more attention is to be paid on the proper selection of the relevant criteria and alternatives, not on choosing the most appropriate multi-criteria decision-making method to be adopted.

ABSTRACT Material selection is the key issue in optimal design of any manufactured product. Nowadays, many materials are being replaced by newer materials in order to meet the demands of cost reduction and better performance. Selecting gear materials for different machining operations is a relatively common and difficult task due to the presence of numerous available alternatives. It has been the greatest problem facing designers in selecting the suitable gear material that matches their expectations, requirements and criteria. Various versions of Vlse Kriterijumska Optimizacija Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method, such as modified VIKOR, extended VIKOR, VIKORRUG (VIKOR for ranking unimproved gap) and comprehensive VIKOR have already been proposed by the past researchers for solving different industrial problems. This paper mainly focuses on solving the gear material selection problems using VIKOR method which has become a popular multi-criteria decision-making tool. It focuses on ranking and selecting the most appropriate material from a set of alternatives in the presence of multiple conflicting criteria. Two real time examples are illustrated to validate the applicability of this method in solving the gear material selection problems.

ABSTRACT Facility location selection is an important problem in all kinds of businesses, including service and manufacturing organisations. Selecting a location for a new organisation or expansion of an existing facility is a crucial component in the eventual success or failure of the organisation. Proper location selection can be a strategic tool that can significantly improve market share growth and increase customer profitability. The cost associated with acquiring the land and facility construction makes the facility location selection a long-term investment decision. The best facility location is that which results in higher economic benefits through increased productivity and good distribution network. Selecting the proper facility location from a given set of candidate alternatives is a difficult task, as many potential qualitative and quantitative criteria need to be considered. This paper solves two real time facility location selection problems using preference ranking organisation method for enrichment evaluation (PROMETHEE II) method which is observed to an effective multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) tool often applied to deal with complex problems in the manufacturing environment. The ranking performance of PROMETHEE II method is compared with the other MCDM methods and it is observed that the top-ranked alternatives exactly match with those as obtained by the past researchers.

Page 1. ORIGINAL ARTICLE Decision making for material selection using the UTA method Vijay Manikrao Athawale & Rajanikar Kumar & Shankar Chakraborty Received: 25 June 2010 /Accepted: 21 March 2011 © Springer-Verlag London Limited 2011 ... Thakkar et al. ...

Abstract: Supplier selection is a continuous and never-ending process for acquiring the necessary raw materials and components to support the final output of business organizations. The suppliers are supposed to provide the required materials, products, ...

... Pi 0.3949 0.3637 0.4249 0.3427 0.4086 0.3894 0.4478 0.5229 0.5073 0.6587 Page 6. Vijay Manikrao Athawale, Shankar Chakraborty Table 6 shows the relative closeness value of each alternative CNC machine, which is calculated using Eqn. ... 4. Mishra S., Prakash, Tiwari MK ...

ABSTRACT In response to increasing inflexible customer demands and to maintain/ improve the competitive advantage, manufacturing organizations must adopt strategies to achieve cost reduction, continual quality improvement, increased customer service and on-time delivery performance. Selection of the most suitable facility location for a new organization or expansion of an existing facility is one among the most important strategic issues to fulfill all these above-mentioned objectives. Nowadays, many manufacturing organizations have come to realize the importance of proper selection of the facility locations to survive in the global competitive market. The huge cost associated with acquiring the land and facility construction makes the facility location a longterm investment decision. The best location is that which results in higher economic benefits through increased productivity and good distribution network. Selecting the proper facility location from a given set of candidate alternatives is a difficult task, as many potential qualitative and quantitative criteria need to be considered. This paper attempts to solve two real-time facility location selection problems using the UTility Additive (UTA) method, which is an effective Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) tool often used to deal with complex problems in the manufacturing environment.