Multi-criteria inventory classification by using a fuzzy Analytic Network Process (ANP) approach

Abstract

Inventory management is an important part of production planning process for enterprises. Decisions for strategies to determine when and how many to buy or make can be made by classifying the inventory items based on their sorts. In this evaluation, ABC inventory classification is one of the most commonly used approaches. In this study, a fuzzy analytic network process approach was proposed to determine the weights of the criteria and the scores of the inventory items were determined with simple additive weighting by using linguistic terms. Applying fuzzy ANP to a multi-criteria inventory classification problem is the novelty of this study in the related literature. In addition, the application area of the problem which is the management of the engineering vehicles' items in a construction firm is different from the other studies. © 2013 Vilnius University.