Application of Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) to Improve Precision and Certainty on Safety Conformity Evaluation in a Bottling Plant

Abstract

With the bottling plant facing safety impacts, the commitment toward zero levels of accidents needs to be evaluated. However, the perception and measurement of safety conformity by the safety manager that is subjected to imprecision and uncertainty are hardly evaluated correctly with the present dominant approach of using crisp numeric values. This article presents a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) approach to reduce the imprecision and uncertainty in the safety conformity multicriteria decision-making results. The method establishes and selects the best safety conformity factors in alignment with different criteria within the segments of a Nigerian bottling plant. The fuzzy synthetic extent concerning each alternative, the degree of possibility, prioritizing weights, and the choice of the best criterion were judged based on the maximum weight in the FAHP evaluation process. The average weight criterion was used to distinguish the best from the worst units within each segment. The results reveal the criteria weights as 0.4937 for haulage drillers (warehouse), 0.3038 for palletizers (manufacturing corridor), 0.3333 for syrup mixers/lab technicians for quality assurance, and no choice of the best parameter for the fleet workshop. However, the highest weight for the contractors is 0.3201, which is for contractor 1. To compare the best and worst criteria in the present study and a literature source, the optimal criteria choices of safety conformity conflicted in all the segments. The principal difference between the present method and the analytic hierarchy process approach is integrating fuzzy application to the analytical hierarchy process to provide a more accurate safety conformity assessment, yielding reliable and informative results representing the vagueness of the bottling process decision-making process. This unique approach provides an opportunity for the production workers to work more collaboratively towards attaining new solutions to the uncertainty and imprecision problem in safety conformity for the bottling plant.