Decision support for information systems management : applying analytic hierarchy process

Decision-making in the field of information systems has become more complex due to a larger number of alternatives, multiple and sometimes conflicting goals, and an increasingly turbulent environment. In this paper we explore the appropriateness of Analytic Hierarchy Process to support I/S decision making. AHP can be applied if the decision problem includes multiple objectives, conflicting criteria, incommensurable units, and aims at selecting an alternative from a known set of alternatives. An AHP analysis is described by using the project selection decision as an example. The strengths and weaknesses of AHP are investigated based on a set of eight criteria for evaluating I/S decision support methods. This evaluation shows that AHP scores well on most criteria. Given this promising performance, other possible applications of AHP within the I/S function are listed.

A Decision Support Model Suggestion for Logistics Support Unit in Risky Environment

Abstract. Storage facilities have an important role for uninterrupted product/service flow and ensuring continuity in supply chains. Criteria, which will be taken into account for the location of this facilities, and criteria values, can alter in accordance with private or public sector and risk environment as well. Besides logistics costs, transportation opportunities and proximity to the customers, risk based criteria such as terror, sabotage, air strikes, and natural disasters play an important role in order to select facility location. During production flow, Logistics Support Bases (LSB) are the military facilities, which affect firstly operation process positively or negatively and secondly result of the operations, serve in the risk environment. In a specific environment, selection of LSB becomes a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem for the decision maker. This study aims to determine qualifications which will be used to select the best suitable location of LSB; define the importance value of selected qualifications via DEMATEL method, and select the best location of LSB between alternative places. DEMATEL has used in the determination of criteria values and then VIKOR method has used to select the most appropriate location for LSB in the risk environment.Keywords. Logistics support unit, Risk, Facility location, Multi-criteria decision making, DEMATEL, VIKOR.JEL. D81, R53, C40, C44, D70

Suppliers Selection In Manufacturing Industries And Associated Multi-Objective Desicion Making Methods: Past, Present And The Future

Nowadays, many manufacturing companies have decided to use other companies’ competencies and outsource part of their manufacturing processes and business to suppliers globally in order to reduce costs, improve quality of products, explore or expand new markets, and offer better services to customers, etc. The decisions have rendered manufacturing organizations with new challenges. Organizations need to evaluate their suppliers' performance, and take account of their weakness and strength in order to win and survive in highly competitive global marketplaces. Hence, suppliers evaluation and selection are taken as an important strategy for manufactring enterprises. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive and critical review on suppliers selection and the formulation of different criteria for suppliers selection, the associated multi-objctive decision makings, selecion algorithms, and their implementation and application perspectives. Furthermore, individual and integrated suppliers selection approaches are presented, including Analytic hierarchy process (AHP), Analytic network process (ANP), and Mathematical programming (MP). Linear programming (LP), Integer programming (IP), Data envelopment analysis (DEA) and Goal programming (GP) are discussed with in-depth. The paper concludes with further discussion on the potential and application of suppliers selection approach for the broad manufacturing industry

The Application of a Decision-making Approach Based on Fuzzy ANP and TOPSIS for Selecting a Strategic Supplier

Supplier selection becomes very important when used in the context of strategic partnerships because of the long-term orientation of the relationship. This paper describes the application of a decision-making approach for selecting a strategic partner (supplier). The approach starts with defining a set of criteria that fits the company's condition. In the next steps, a combination of fuzzy-ANP and TOPSIS methods is used to determine the weight for each criterion and rank all the alternatives. The application of the approach in an Indonesian manufacturing company showed that the three factors that got the highest weight were “geographical location”, “current operating performance”, and “reliability”. Geographical location got the highest weight because it affects many other factors such as reaction to changes in demand, after-sales service, and delivery lead-time. Application of the approach helps decision-makers to gain effectiveness and efficiency in the decision-making process because it facilitates them to express their group's collective preferences while also providing opportunities for members to express their individual preferences. Future research can be directed at combining qualitative and quantitative criteria to develop the best criteria and methods for the selection of the best suppliers based on fuzzy ANP and TOPSIS

The Application of a Decision-making Approach based on Fuzzy ANP and TOPSIS for Selecting a Strategic Supplier

Supplier selection becomes very important when used in the context of strategic partnerships because of the long-term orientation of the relationship. This paper describes the application of a decision-making approach for selecting a strategic partner (supplier). The approach starts with defining a set of criteria that fits the company's condition. In the next steps, a combination of fuzzy-ANP and TOPSIS methods is used to determine the weight for each criterion and rank all the alternatives. The application of the approach in an Indonesian manufacturing company showed that the three factors that got the highest weight were "geographical location", "current operating performance", and "reliability". Geographical location got the highest weight because it affects many other factors such as reaction to changes in demand, after-sales service, and delivery lead-time.  Application of the approach helps decision-makers to gain effectiveness and efficiency in the decision-making process because it facilitates them to express their group's collective preferences  while also providing opportunities for members to express their individual preferences. Future research can be directed at combining qualitative and quantitative criteria to develop the best criteria and methods for the selection of the best suppliers based on fuzzy ANP and TOPSIS

A decision-making approach for investigating the potential effects of near sourcing on supply chain

Purpose - Near sourcing is starting to be regarded as a valid alternative to global sourcing in order to leverage supply chain (SC) responsiveness and economic efficiency. The present work proposes a decision-making approach developed in collaboration with a leading Italian retailer that was willing to turn the global store furniture procurement process into near sourcing. Design/methodology/approach - Action research is employed. The limitations of the traditional SC organisation and purchasing process of the company are first identified. On such basis, an inventory management model is applied to run spreadsheet estimates where different purchasing and SC management strategies are adopted to determine the solution providing the lowest cost performance. Finally, a risk analysis of the selected best SC arrangement is conducted and results are discussed. Findings - Switching from East Asian suppliers to continental vendors enables a SC reengineering that increases flexibility and responsiveness to demand uncertainty which, together with decreased transportation costs, assures economic viability, thus proving the benefits of near sourcing. Research limitations/implications - The decision-making framework provides a methodological roadmap to address the comparison between near and global sourcing policies and to calculate the savings of the former against the latter. The approach could include additional organisational aspects and cost categories impacting on near sourcing and could be adapted to investigate different products, services, and business sectors. Originality/value - The work provides SC researchers and practitioners with a structured approach for understanding what drives companies to adopt near sourcing and for quantitatively assessing its advantage

Analysis of Inventory Control and Banana Chips Agroindustry Development Strategy in Bandar Lampung

The study aims to analyze the performance of the inventory control and agroindustry development strategy banana chips. Site selection was done in the chips industry center Bandar Lampung City. Sampling was done offender census on members of banana agroindustry business group. Data analysis methods used was the analysis of economic order quantity (EOQ), SWOT and AHP. The results showed that the control of inventory through the ordering of raw materials and production capacity adjusted to do with intersystem messaging. The production process is generally carried out every 3 times a week with raw material price of Rp 3500,- per comb. Agroindustry development strategy banana chips were utilizing fabric of cooperation with other parties in the application of science and technology in order to produce quality products, banana chips, giving a sense of innovation so that the amount of consumer interest and increasing demand for banana chip, and optimization of infrastructure and facilities wereowned agroindustries effective and efficient

Explaining and Refining Decision-Theoretic Choices

As the need to make complex choices among competing alternative actions is ubiquitous, the reasoning machinery of many intelligent systems will include an explicit model for making choices. Decision analysis is particularly useful for modelling such choices, and its potential use in intelligent systems motivates the construction of facilities for automatically explaining decision-theoretic choices and for helping users to incrementally refine the knowledge underlying them. The proposed thesis addresses the problem of providing such facilities. Specifically, we propose the construction of a domain-independent facility called UTIL, for explaining and refining a restricted but widely applicable decision-theoretic model called the additive multi-attribute value model. In this proposal we motivate the task, address the related issues, and present preliminary solutions in the context of examples from the domain of intelligent process control

A METHODOLOGY FOR IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY OF THE EXISTING SHIPBUILDING PROCESS USING MODERN PRODUCTION CONCEPTs AND THE AHP METHOD

In recent years, shipyards have been facing difficulties in controlling operational costs. To maintain continual operation of all of the facilities, a shipyard must analyze ways of utilizing present production systems for assembling interim vessel products as well as other types of industrial constructions. In the past, new machines continuously improved shipbuilding processes, including software and organizational restructuring, but management continued to search for a modern technological concept that will provide higher productivity, greater profit and overall reduction in costs. In the article the authors suggest implementing Design for Production, Design for Maintainability and Group Technology principles using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to apply to multi criteria decision making methods as an efficient tool for maintaining international competitiveness in the modern shipbuilding industry. This novel methodology is implemented through four phases. In the first phase, the present situation analysis is suggested for a real shipyard by establishing closest relations among production lines. The second phase presents a constraint analysis that must be evaluated when developing the design solution. The third phase involves generating a typical number of selected alternatives of the Design for Production, Design for Maintainability and Group Technology principles. In the fourth phase, the optimal design solution is selected using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The solution incorporating this modern methodology will improve productivity, profit and lead to decreasing operational costs