SEWING MACHINE SELECTION USING LINEAR PHYSICAL PROGRAMMING

Abstract

Sewing is a critical operation in garment production process. Therefore, alternative sewing machines must carefully be evaluated prior to procurement. Multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques can effectively be used in sewing machine evaluation process since multiple evaluation criteria including speed and price must be considered. However, physically meaningless subjective weights are assigned to evaluation criteria in most MCDM techniques. Linear Physical Programming (LPP) is a MCDM methodology that eliminates this subjective weight assignment process by allowing decision makers to express their preferences in a physically meaningful way. In this study, a sewing machine selection problem faced by a textile company is solved using LPP.