2. Study area and methodology
This study is an adaptation of the MCDM process used to choose the location for a grass warehouse in Chiang Rai Province. Chiang Rai is the appropriate strategic province in which to set the warehouse. There are many resources available each year, and it is home to an important economic route for exporting products to nearby countries. If the warehouse is set in Chiang Rai Province, it will be convenient to transport the grass to other provinces in Northern Thailand throughout the year, and it will be possible to store the materials imported from nearby countries. This will lend a logistical efficiency to the location. There may be more than one appropriate location for the warehouse, so the
MCDM approach will be used to choose the best
one, as indicated below.
2.1 Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)
The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is one
of the MCDM methods originally developed by
Prof. Thomas L. Saaty. In short, it is a method used
to derive ratio scales from paired comparisons. AHP
allows for some small inconsistencies in
judgments, because humans are not always
consistent. The ratio scales are derived from the
principal Eigen vectors, and the consistency index
is derived from the principal Eigen value.
The elements of AHP are as follows:
Criteria
Comparison of criteria
Table of priorities or preference levels
The elements in a decision-making process
can be divided into four parts:
1. Identifying the problem or goal is the
beginning of the decision-making process and
affects the determination and evaluation of
alternatives.
2. Major criteria is a set of criteria for
decision making problem.
3. Sub-criteria are secondary criteria used to
enhance the effective decision-making process.
4. Alternatives. The consideration of
alternatives is the most important step in the
decision-making process. It also affects the ability
to diagnose alternatives.
Prioritizing criteria
Priorities are established among the
elements of the hierarchy by making a series of
judgments based on pairwise comparisons of them,
as shown in Table 1.