Title: The application of analytic hierarchy process in classification of material planning and control systems

Authors: Jafar Razmi, Mohamed Zairi, Angappa Gunasekaran

Addresses: European Centre for TQM, University of Bradford, UK and Industrial Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tehran, Iran. ' University of Bradford Management Centre, Emm Lane, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD9 4JL, UK. ' Department of Management, Charlton College of Business, University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth, 285 Old Westport Road, North Dartmouth, MA 02747-2300, USA.

Abstract: Many organisations keep thousands of items in their warehouses, which may worth more than 50% of all companies| expenses (Neely and Byrne, 1992). Controlling of these items by one Material Planning and Control System (MPCS) (push and pull systems) may not be rational or economic. Every methodology has different cost and service level in different environments. Therefore, the tool required to categorise the material based upon the suitability of MPCS. This paper presents a multicriteria approach within Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is capable of classifying the materials and components for different MPCS, that is, Kanban, MRP, hybrid and Re-Order Point (ROP) Systems.

Keywords: AHP; analytical hierarchy process; material planning; multicriteria decision making; MCDM; push/pull systems; hybrid systems; lattice-space model; MPCS; material control; push control; pull control; kanban; MRP; reorder point systems.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2006.010252

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2006 Vol.2 No.4, pp.352 - 366

Published online: 11 Jul 2006 *

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