Abstract

CHAMA, C.; HARDING, K.; MULOPO, J.  and  CHEGO, P.. A multi-criteria decision analysis approach to pallet selection: development of a material-of-construction evaluation model. S. Afr. J. Ind. Eng. [online]. 2021, vol.32, n.3, pp.52-64. ISSN 2224-7890.  http://dx.doi.org/10.7166/32-3-2614.

Although pallets have traditionally been constructed from wood, there has been a shift towards making them from plastic and other composite materials. Subsequently, the storage and transportation industry has been inundated with questions about 'the best' pallet material type in relation to a supply chain. In addition, in a rapidly changing global manufacturing and storage environment, industry players have difficulty justifying the high capital cost of adopting new state-of-the-art pallets. This paper seeks to build a model to identify the best pallet material-of-construction (MOC) as perceived by the end consumer. The approach used for this was based on different stages of building an assistive multi-criteria decision model. This included modelling the decision framework using the analytic hierarchy process and undertaking an independent case study as the baseline for the modelling.

        · abstract in Afrikaans     · text in English     · English ( pdf )