An Integrated Fuzzy TOPSIS-Knapsack Problem Model for Order Selection in a Bakery

Abstract

In this study, a new model has been developed for the order selection problem for a bakery firm located in Turkey. We consider a combined order selection and process planning problem where a make-to-order bakery goods producer firm has to determine a set of orders to process so as to maximize the total profit. The developed model combines setup costs, sales price, lot size, demand and other important daily data of the products. After collecting the related data, fuzzy TOPSIS method is used to obtain the rankings of the orders (bread types). Then, the ranking scores are incorporated in the knapsack problem to determine the lot size and which orders to select. A computer application is also provided in the paper. With the help of MS Excel Visual Basic program, the computer application updates data daily, ranks the products, determines the lot size, and helps the decision maker with the selection of orders. The computational results show that the proposed method presented better results than the current method applied in the firm. Comparing the two methods in terms of cost reduction, the proposed method gives better results than the current method with 27%. Furthermore, the proposed computer program does not need extra special software or a commercial computer program, which is favorable for small-size enterprises.