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An integrated fuzzy MCDM approach for manufacturing process improvement in MSMEs

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Abstract

To deal with dynamic customer preferences and global competition, Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) are striving to improve customer satisfaction by enhancing their process capability, optimising resource utilization and achieving cost effectiveness. Manufacturing line in MSMEs involves a number of complex processes and process variations lead to rejections of poor quality products resulting in monetary losses and customer dissatisfaction. Delivery of high quality product within constraints of manpower, machinery and other limited resources stipulates the need to improve the process performance of manufacturing line through quality management. With this perspective, the present work proposes a framework to identify and prioritize defects by integrating multicriteria decision making techniques- Fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory and Fuzzy Analytic Network Process with Quality Management Practices. The integration filters out most influential defects prior to data collection and prioritize them to reach out to critical defects of manufacturing process. Additionally, it addresses challenges faced by management in terms of large number of defects, insufficient data on defects and dependency among selected criteria. The proposed framework is exhibited with the help of a real case study. It is practically relevant in deriving decision support solutions for improving performance of manufacturing line in MSME firms. By virtue of the results, key areas are identified to augment responsiveness to government policies and MSME’s proficiency to overcome resource constraints.

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Abbreviations

MSME:

Medium, small and micro enterprises

FDEMATEL:

Fuzzy decision making trial and evaluation laboratory

FANP:

Fuzzy analytic network process

QMP:

Quality management practices

GoI:

Government of India

GDP:

Gross domestic product

FICCI:

Federation of Indian chambers of commerce and industry

PwC:

Pricewaterhousecoopers

MoMSME:

Ministry of medium, small and micro enterprises

IBEF:

India brand equity foundation

M/o Textile:

Ministry of textile

NMCP:

National manufacturing competitiveness programme

DCMSME:

Development commissioner ministry of medium, small and micro enterprises

USA:

United States of America

UK:

United Kingdom

MCDM:

Multi-criteria decision making

ZED:

Zero defect and zero effect

C&E:

Cause and effect

FMEA:

Failure mode of effect and analysis

DMAIC:

Define-measure-analyse-improve-control

SIPOC:

Supply input process output customer

CRT:

Current reality tree

TMED:

Taguchi method of experimental design

CFCS:

Converting fuzzy data into crisp scores

BNP:

Best non-fuzzy performance

CGD:

Cause group defects

KPI:

Key performance indicators

TFN:

Triangular fuzzy numbers

OA:

Orthogonal arrays

S/N :

Signal to noise

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

SOP:

Standard operating procedures

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Funding

This work was sponsored by Shanghai Pujiang Program (Grant No. 2021PJC066) and Shanghai Soft Science Research Program (Grant No. 22692196400). This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China Project (72072021, 71772032).

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Xu, S., Nupur, R., Kannan, D. et al. An integrated fuzzy MCDM approach for manufacturing process improvement in MSMEs. Ann Oper Res 322, 1037–1073 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-022-05093-5

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