Application of AHP/DEA to Facility Layout Selection

Facility location selection is a multi-criteria decision problem and has a strategic importance for many companies, so it is very important to select alternative locations using appropriate methods. The aim of this study is to use analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and pure output data envelopment analysis (DEA) methods for facility location selection. After determining the factors that affect the facility location decisions, pure output DEA is used to construct the comparison matrix, then AHP is applied to calculate the weights of the alternative locations. In this method the known data is fully used and the influence of personal factors is avoided. Finally an example is illustrated to prove the method effective.