Akshay M. Jadhav

Dr. PD Pantawane

Dr. B Rajiv

Prof. BB Ahuja

Abstract

Selection of the manufacturing facility location is an important decision criteria for any new organization desirous of setting up a new plant or shifting of an existing plant. This decision primarily affects the capital investment in the new project and long term growth of the business from the market share perspectives. Therefore selection of the plant location plays an important role in the long run success of business. For plant location selection decision several criteria viz. availability of cheap land and raw materials, sufficient electricity and water, transportation, closeness to market, availability of skilled and unskilled manpower, government policies and tax regimes etc. need to be considered. The viable decision to select the plant location is solely based on number of the multiple criteria or alternatives which justify the application of Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) for efficient and reliable decision making. In this paper, the alternatives are evaluated with an integrated multi criteria decision making methodology, using the three popular methods viz. Delphi, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). The paper showcase the applicability of these decision making techniques for a new plant location selection for any new or existing firm.

Keywords- MCDM, AHP, TOPSIS, Location selection, Delphi, Manufacturing