A Proposed Decision Support System for Location Selection Using Fuzzy Quality Function Deployment

Abstract

Decision Support Systems, Advances in 188 overcome the uncertainty in human's judgments. Finally, an illustrative example is conducted to show the phases of location selection. In this example, eight potential alternatives (locations) are assessed in the first phase in order to select three alternatives. Then, fuzzy QFD is applied to select the best location. The implementation of the proposed model is easy and does not need any optimization background. This chapter is organized as follows. Section 2 gives a literature review. Section 3 presents a description for the fuzzy sets theory. Section 4 describes the problem. Then, the proposed model is presented in Section 5. Furthermore, an illustrative example is given in Section 6. Finally, conclusions are provided in Section 7. 2. Literature review Location selection is a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem that includes both qualitative and quantitative metrics. In this section, a literature review is presented in two sections, called location selection and quality function deployment (QFD). 2.1 Location selection In this section, we imply on the papers of location selection using MCDM techniques. Tzeng & Chen (1999) proposed a location model based on a fuzzy multi-objective approach. This model helps in determining the optimal number and sites of fire stations at an international airport, and also determining the best location. Chen (2001) used triangular fuzzy numbers to select the best distribution location. Furthermore, he proposed a stepwise ranking procedure to rank fuzzy numbers. Kuo et al. (2002) proposed an algorithm for determining the location of a store. The model is based on fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Kahraman et al. (2003) solved facility location problems using different solutions of fuzzy multi-attribute group decision-making. They compared four fuzzy models. Chou et al. (2008) presented a fuzzy multi-criteria decision making (FMCDM) model for location selection of the international tourist hotel based on triangular fuzzy numbers. Furthermore, they categorized hotels criteria as a hierarchy. Guneri et al. (2009) used the analytic network process (ANP) to select the best location. However, in all of these models the relationship between product characteristics and location criteria is ignored. QFD is a unique tool that can overcome this drawback. 2.2. QFD Quality function deployment (QFD) has been widely used for numerous years. It was originated in Japan in 1970s and became increasingly popular in the western world in the 1980s (Houser & Clausing, 1988). In general, it is used by many companies because of three reasons: (1) it saves design and development time, (2) it focuses on the satisfaction of customer, and (3) it improves communication at all levels of the organization (Myint, 2003). Although QFD has a lot of advantages, it also has some drawbacks, such as the amount of time required to implement QFD, and the qualitative and subjective decision-making process (Cohen, 1995; Bouchereau & Rowlands, 2000). Because of the l...

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