An AHP based comparison between automated and manual material handling systems in FMS environment

Abstract

Flexible manufacturing is a process which permits production systems to perform under high customised production needs. The goals of manufacturing systems like minimum inventories, improved quality, enhanced technical performance and reduction of cost can be achieved by implementing the FMS. Material handling system plays a very important role and consumes a significant amount of cost and time in flexible manufacturing system (FMS). Since a lot of factors affect the material handling system, so selection of best suitable material handling system which optimises all these factors is a big problem before any material manager. The purpose of this study is to present a multi-criteria decision making comparison model which would be very useful for choosing better alternative between automated and manual material handling system (MMHS). Analytical hierarchy process (AHP)-based comparison is performed upon these attributes to select the best alternative between manual material handling system and automated material handling system (AMHS).