Using Data Envelopment Analysis and Analytical Hierarchy Process Model to Evaluate Flexible Manufacturing Systems

Nowadays most of manufacturing firms in accordance with continuous changes in the market and the todayʹs competitiveness world are competing for meeting demand, increasing quality and decreasing costs. For reaching these goals, it is necessary to select a suitable flexible manufacturing system (FMS) for the most of manufactures. The aim of this paper is applying a method for evaluating the flexible manufacturing systems based on a model incorporating two decision models namely "Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)" and "Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)". DEA helps us to categorize the Decision Making Units (DMUs) to only two classes of efficient and inefficient units, whereas by using an AHP, we can have a full rank of DMUs. Input and output factors considered for ranking FMSs are Capital and Operating Costs, Throughput Time, Work in Process, Labor Requirements, Required Floor Space, Product Mix Flexibility, Yield, and Volume Flexibility. The proposed approach is applied in a Vehicle Manufacturing Company