An integrated multi-criteria decision-making methodology for conveyor system selection

Abstract

© 2016 The Author(s). Material handling equipment (MHE) is important for every industry because it has an effect on the productivity of manufacturing. Conveyor systems are presently one popular type of MHE. This paper presents an integration of the analytic network process (ANP) with the benefits, opportunities, costs and risk (BOCR) model in order to select the best conveyor system. The proposed model established a network with four merits, six strategies criteria, and twenty six sub-criteria with four alternatives (present, roller conveyor, chain conveyor, and monorail). The ANP is to determine the relative weights of an evaluative criteria and decision alternatives. Therefore, the final ranking of the alternatives are calculated by synthesizing the score of each alternative under BOCR. The results showed that the best alternative under all five methods is the chain conveyor. These research results can be easily applied, adapted and used to improve performance of selecting the conveyer system in small and medium enterprises through large industries.