Distance-based fuzzy MCDM approach for evaluating flexible manufacturing system alternatives

Considering the high required capital outlay and moderate risk of a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) investment, economic justification techniques are insufficient by themselves since they cannot cope with the benefits such as flexibility and enhanced quality offered by advanced manufacturing technologies. A robust decision-making procedure for evaluating FMS requires the consideration of both economic and strategic investment measures. A distance-based fuzzy multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) framework based on the concepts of ideal and anti-ideal solutions is presented for the selection of an FMS from a set of mutually exclusive alternatives. The proposed method provides the means for integrating the economic figure of merit with the strategic performance variables. The multicriteria decision approach presented here enables us to incorporate data in the forms of linguistic variables, triangular fuzzy numbers and crisp numbers into the evaluation process of FMS alternatives. Linguistic variables are also used to indicate the criteria's importance weights assigned by the decision-makers. A comprehensive example illustrates the application of the multicriteria decision analysis.