Title: Group fuzzy ANP procedure development for leanness assessment in auto part manufacturing companies

Authors: Seyed Mohammad Seyedhosseini; Ahmad Ebrahimi-Taleghani

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box: 16846-13114, Narmak, Tehran, Iran ' Department of Industrial Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box: 16846-13114, Narmak, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: In this paper, we propose a new approach for assessing leanness level in auto part manufacturing companies on the basis of the balanced scorecard (BSC) concept in order to build a comprehensive decision model with a semi-hierarchical structure which has four levels. Because there are some interdependencies within two determined levels of the proposed approach, a group fuzzy analytic network process (GFANP) method is used. Hence, we gathered the experts' opinions, aggregated their judgements and found the global weights of elements in the lowest level. Finally, a novel way is given to find the leanness score for the overall organisation as well as the leanness score for each level through auditing the companies. The extracted leanness score helps the audited companies to understand their current leanness status. Finally, to illustrate the efficiency and applicability of the proposed approach, a real case study in an Iranian auto part manufacturing has been adopted.

Keywords: lean production; leanness assessment; balanced scorecard; BSC; GFANP; group fuzzy ANP; analytical network process; fuzzy logic; automobile industry; automotive components; component manufacturing; lean manufacturing; Iran.

DOI: 10.1504/JGBA.2015.069528

Journal for Global Business Advancement, 2015 Vol.8 No.2, pp.157 - 175

Published online: 21 May 2015 *

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