Comparison of new multi-criteria decision making methods for material handling equipment selection

Abstract

Conveyors and automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are important mechanical handling equipment used to transport loads from one place to another. Selection of proper material handling equipment is an intricate process. In the present paper two material handling equipment selection problem was solved using various newly developed multi criteria decision making (MCDM) methods. First a conveyor selection problem with six conflicting criteria and four alternatives was solved using four MCDM methods, i.e. combinative distance based assessment (CODAS) method, evaluation based on distance from average solution (EDAS) method, weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS) method and multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio analysis (MOORA) method. Second an automated guided vehicles selection problem with six conflicting criteria and eight alternatives was solved using CODAS, EDAS, WASPAS and MOORA methods. Spearman rank correlation coefficient was calculated between the ranks obtained by various methods. The ranks obtained by these methods were even compared with the ranks of other MCDM methods and it was found that the relatively new methods CODAS, EDAS and WASPAS were in good agree-ment with each other.

Keywords

• MCDM
• CODAS
• EDAS
• MOORA
• WASPAS
• Conveyor selection
• Automated guided vehicle selection