Developing a Multi Criteria Decision Making Framework to Select the Most Suitable Production Line in Apparel Firms: Use of ANP Method

Abstract

The apparel industry is considered as one of the most labor-intensive industries where production planning and Control (PPC) is considered as an impoftant function, because of its involvement from scheduling each task i-n the process till the delivery of customer demand. Line planning is a sub process within PPC, through which the production orders are allocated to production lines according to its setting and due dates ofproduction completion. The decisions that address line planning function still heavily rely on the expertise of the ploduction planner. When production planners are required to select production lines for the production ofa particuiar type ofpioduct, little emphasis has been placed on ways to apportion ceftain production orders to the most appropriate pioduction system. In thii research, a framework is developed using Analyical Network Process (ANP) which is a Multi Critlria Decision Making (MCDM) method, enabling the incorporation of all the planning criteria in the selection of a production line. The weighted scores obtained by the best alternative production lines are used in a Linear Programming model to optimize the resource allocation in an apparel firm.