Taguchi method weighted multi-criteria decision making methods for facility location selection

This thesis focuses on the problem of selecting a new location for a supermarket chain using the Taguchi method weighted multi-criteria decision-making methods. In the facility location selection process, four crucial criteria determined by the management of the business are the size of the area where the new branch will be established, parking capacity, population density in the business environment, and the number of competing businesses in the vicinity. A multi-criteria decision-making problem is designed for 12 alternative markets of the business, utilizes the criteria weights set by the management and the importance weights obtained through the Taguchi method proposed in this thesis. Subsequently, the TOPSIS, VIKOR, and COPRAS multi-criteria decision-making methods are employed for solution. A new dominant solution approach is proposed in this thesis for evaluating the results obtained from multi-criteria decision-making methods and reaching the final decision. When the results obtained from the thesis study are examined; according to the weighting results obtained with the Taguchi method, it is shown that the most important factor is the number of rival businesses in the environment with a weight of 46.90%. The next factor is the population around the new business with a weight of 41.77%. The weights of the other two factors are determined as follows; the size of the new business is 6.88% and the parking capacity is 4.43%. In the evaluation of alternatives; in both weighting systems in TOPSIS and VIKOR methods and in the COPRAS method, while alternative 2 is proposed as the business opinion weighting in the decision-making problem examined, alternative 12 is recommended as the first choice in the Taguchi relative weighting system. The alternative 2 in the same method comes in second place. In the recommended variable-weighted dominant solution approach to obtain a final decision from different method results, alternative 2 is recommended as the first choice in both weighting systems. In conclusion; it has been reached that the approach of determining relative weights with the Taguchi method proposed and developed in this thesis study can be used as an alternative weighting determination method, and the proposed variable dominant solution method recommended for multi-criteria decision-making problems in the process of making the final decision will be a new method that can be used. Detailed numerical solutions have been provided for the new market selection problem addressed, and the effectiveness of the proposed approaches has also been demonstrated.