Ranking Alternative Warehouse Area Assignments: A Multiattribute Approach

The paper considers a choice problem among alternative space allocations. The choice is often made intuitively because of the difficulty in simultaneously considering multiple criteria (i.e., space categories), some of which are of conflicting nature. The paper employs the methodology of multi-attribute value functions to score and rank seven suggested area assignments. Through explicit consideration of trade-offs among the four space categories, the methodology yields a rank ordering which is consistent with the decision maker's preferences. In addition to ranking the alternatives, the formal analysis provided important insight into the trade-off and value structure over the space attributes to facilitate a new area assignment which was superior to the ones originally proposed.