How to select suitable manufacturing information system outsourcing projects by using TOPSIS method

Abstract

Modern business management depends on information technology (IT) deeply. However, most companies, especially manufacturing, are not good at IT. But IT is very important and complex to the manufacturing industry. Numerous manufacturing now outsource their information system (IS) projects to Information Service Providers (ISP) instead of developing in-house. This work classifies the critical objectives for selecting manufacturing information system outsourcing projects into benefit-related objectives and cost-related objectives and then formulates a goal programming (GP) model. Interactions between manufacturing information system projects and availability of scarce resources are also considered into constraints of the model. However, because of the incommensurability and conflicting nature of these objectives, the GP model becomes complex. The method called ‘technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution’ (TOPSIS) and the fuzzy set theory are employed to simplify the complex GP solving process and reflect the preferences of managers. A case study of a TV assembly company in Taiwan illustrates the feasibility of the proposed model.