Ranking facility locations of institutions conducting centralized examinations: An application for Ankara province

Facility location selection is an issue which involves plenty number of criteria in the evaluation process. Since the abundance of criteria and the requirement of compatibility with each other, the problem of facility selection is handled as a very complicated problem. In order to solve these complicated problems, very specific decision making methods have been developed as Multi Criteria Decision Making. The Analytic Hierarchy Process method is one of these Decision Making methods is used by decision-makers or individuals in situations where they evaluate quantitative and qualitative criteria together. This study is conducted with the aim of evaluating the examination buildings in terms of ergonomics and human factors by using AHP method and providing an approach that could help decision-makers in institutions conducting centralized examinations. In this study, AHP method is used by considering both quantitative and qualitative criteria and examination buildings are determined by looking at a variety of criteria according to ergonomics and human factors. According to the survey data obtained from 69 examination coordinators of the selected institution conducting centralized examinations, 4 different main criteria and 21 sub criteria are examined by using Microsoft Excel Software Programme. All answers of online surveys and printed surveys are included in CD as Appendix E and Appendix F respectively. As a result of the study, Ümitköy Anatolian High School is the most preferable examination building since it has the highest score (0.047869) among the 21 alternatives. Türk Telekom Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School is the next best examination building with the next highest score (0.047712). Zeynep - Salih Alp Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School is handled as the third highest score with the value of 0.047566. Transportation to the examination buildings is evaluated as the most important criteria with the value of 0.439 which affects the facility location problem. All results are discussed and analyzed with the experts in the area of ergonomics and human factors. All in all, these three examination buildings with the highest score according to the selected criteria have demonstrated that the study is matching with the values of ergonomics and human factors and reflecting the real cases.