Selection of manufacturing process using graph theoretic approach

To manufacture a product, nowadays there are many methods available in the market to manufacture them and to earn more profits and best production which is the prime focus of any manufacturing industry, it is necessary to select only that type of manufacturing process which leads to more profits, less scraps, and reworks, faster production rate, good quality of production, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, etc. So the aim of this paper is to judge the best manufacturing process among various manufacturing processes for manufacturing any product using graph theoretic approach. The graph theoretic approach reveals a single numerical index and accordingly it is possible to choose the best manufacturing process. To apply the graph theoretic approach the authors selected four factors namely: Quality, Cost, Technical Capability, and Production. Based on these factors and their co-factors a fish bone diagram is represented. While applying graph theoretic approach a digraph of the characteristics is drawn which represented the factors and co-factors affecting the selection of manufacturing process and further the interdependency of the factors as well as their inheritances has been identified and its representation in the matrix form has been used for the calculation of numerical index of the manufacturing process through its variable permanent quality function. The technique is applicable when there are more than options are available for manufacturing a product. An example is also shown in the last of the paper to understand the application of graph theoretic approach for the selection of best manufacturing process among three processes. © 2012 The Society for Reliability Engineering, Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM), India and The Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden.