An integrated decision making approach for glass container industries

This paper discusses making decisions in the glass container industry. The production of glass containers for the packaging of food and beverages is one of the most important parts of glass industries. In this research, the decision is made on the production plan for the glass container industries from the perspective of various executive stakeholders. In this regard, two models are initially presented: 1) the first model with a production approach, i.e. considering the objectives and constraints of the production stakeholders, and 2) the second model with a sales approach, taking into account the objectives and constraints of the sales stakeholders. Also, in the sales approach, by defining a new index, the importance of meeting customers’ demands is considered separately and according to different criteria. TOPSIS technique as one of the multi-attribute decision making methods is employed to calculate the noted parameter. Then, a multi-objective integrated model with a managerial approach for decision making on the production planning in the glass container industry is proposed, in which it is attempted to consider the viewpoints of various stakeholders. Finally, the proposed approach is implemented in one of the largest companies producing glass containers in Iran. In this regard, compromise programming is used to solve the final model. It is one of the multi-objective optimization methods which are classified under non-preferred methods. The obtained results show the efficiency of the proposed integrated approach for the studied company. It is also worth noting that the obtained results are presented for the management of the studied company and the results are found to be useful.