Manufacturing plant location analysis by multiple attribute decision making: part I—single-plant strategy

The plant location problem is one which entails multiple factors (attrihutes). The decision process is often made intuitively because of the conflicting nature among attributes and the lack of awareness of proper evaluation techniques, The multiple attribute decision making (MADM) methods are management decision aids in evaluating and/or selecting a desired one from the finite number of options, which are characterized by multiple attributes. Usually the number of prospective sites is finite, hence MADM methods are clearly suitable tools for site selection problems. This paper employs five newly-developed MADM methods for different versions of manufacturing plant site selection problems. The present part I considers the single-plant strategy with qualitative and quantitative data. Part II will cover the multi-plant strategy with the budget constraint and the relocation strategy.