Applying Fuzzy Technique for Multi-objective Machine Assignment Problem in Electronic Part Factory

Abstract

This research aims to improve production planning operation of electronic part factory. The objective is to assign the jobs to the machines to minimize the total cost for each month. In this machine assignment problem, there are three considered objectives; 1) minimizing the number of production quantity from outsource, 2) minimizing number of machine changeover from previous month and 3) minimizing the number of machines. The first objective is more important than the second objective and the second objective gets higher priority than the third objective. The constraints for this assigning problem are demand requirement, machine capability, number of available machines and the machine usage of the previous month. Hence, this factory problem can be categorized as Multi-objective machine assignment problem with preemptive priorities. This paper presents the solution approach which depends on satisfaction of decision maker. The results from the studied factory for three months show that this approach can reduce outsourcing cost and machine changeover cost. It can also improve planning efficiency. Overall, it can save the factory 26.61 million baht over three months. This saving could significantly help company compete with the competitors in today business world.