Novel Multi-Criteria Group Decision Making Method for Production Scheduling Based on Group AHP and Cloud Model Enhanced TOPSIS

Optimized production scheduling can greatly improve efficiency and reduce waste in the steel manufacturing industry. With the increasing demands on the economy, the environment, and society, more and more factors need to be considered in the production scheduling process. Currently, only a few methods are developed for the comprehensive evaluation and prioritization of scheduling schemes. This paper proposes a novel MCGDM (multi-criteria group decision making) method for the ranking and selection of production scheduling schemes. First, a novel indicator system involving both qualitative and quantitative indicators is put forward. Diverse statistical methods and evaluation functions are proposed for the evaluation of quantitative indicators. The evaluation method of qualitative indicators is proposed based on heterogeneous data, cloud model theory, and group decision-making techniques. Then, a novel Group AHP model is proposed to determine the weights of all evaluation indicators. Finally, a novel cloud-model-enhanced TOPSIS (technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution) method is proposed to rank alternative production scheduling schemes. A practical example is presented to show the implementation details and demonstrate the feasibility of our proposed method. The results and comparative analysis indicate that our hybrid MCGDM method is more reasonable, flexible, practical, and effective in evaluating and ranking production scheduling schemes in an uncertain environment.