The Effective Work Priority Decision Method Using TOPSIS and PROMETHEE for SMEs

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Today, with the arrival of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the company's production environment is rapidly changing. Customer requirements are becoming more diversified and product life cycles are shortening. In this paper, we propose a decision support system suitable for SMEs.
Methods/Statistical analysis: In this paper, we selected the priorities through the TOPSIS method and the PROMETHEE methodology, which are based empirical knowledge of field production managers, among the existing multi attribute decision making method and compared with the existing dispatching rules.
Findings: We compared the effort and time required to assign work priorities by reflecting the rapidly changing order environment of small and medium-sized manufacturing companies as scenarios. In particular, we analyzed the performance of each methodologies finding work priorities based on new orders or change of delivery dates. The result of simulation analysis on the deadline delays which SMEs consider the most important factor as follows. PROMETHEE was lowest as 268.78 min/month while TOPSIS was 421.39 min/month, the FIFO rule was 466.64 min/month, the SPT rule was 496.17 min/month, and the LPT rule was 602.07 min/month. As a result, the application of the PROTMETHEE reduces the manufacturing lead time by approximately 252.85 min/month on average, over the FIFO, SPT, and LPT rules used in existing companies. In addition, the average manufacturing lead time was reduced by about 100.24 min/month than the SPT, LPT, and FIFO rules.
Improvements/Applications: As a result, by using both PROMETHEE and TOPSIS, it is possible to reduce the tardiness time by about 176.54 min/month compared to the existing dispatching rules..