Title: AHP-PROMETHEE integrated approach for agile concept selection

Authors: S. Vinodh; Adithya Patil; T.S. Sai Balagi; P. Sundara Natarajan

Addresses: Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli-620 015, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli-620 015, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli-620 015, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli-620 015, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: Agile manufacturing (AM) is an operations concept that is intended to improve the competitiveness of firms. In the face of uncertain market conditions, spiralling costs and an ever increasing competition, it becomes imperative that an organisation optimises its manufacturing processes in a way that would help it adapt to changes in the market scenario and remain competitive - changes that may be desirable or undesirable. AM principles enable an organisation to sustain in the competitive market scenario. Concept selection for an AM system is a typical multi criteria decision making (MCDM) problem. In order to enhance the effectiveness of concept selection, an integrated AHP-PROMETHEE approach has been used in the study. The study is aimed at selecting the best concept design of an automobile component. The selected design was subjected to implementation in the case organisation.

Keywords: agile manufacturing; concept selection; multicriteria decision making; MCDM; analytical hierarchy process; AHP; PROMETHEE; component design; automotive components; vehicle design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2014.063245

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2014 Vol.18 No.4, pp.449 - 467

Published online: 26 Jul 2014 *

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