THE AHP： A MULTICRITERIA DECISION MAKING METHODOLOGY FOR SHIFTWORK PRIORITIZING

1. Introduction The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for decision-making uses objective mathematics to process the inescapably subjective and personal preferences of an individual or a group in making a decision. With the AHP, we construct hierarchies that have a first level of strategic or politic criteria, then expand each one of these criteria into more specific subcriteria until reach the terminal criteria, the behavior indicators. Later, makes judgments or performs measurements on pai…

The AHP: A multicriteria decision making methodology for shiftwork prioritizing

The objective of this paper is to show that the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a very powerful methodology for designing shiftwork schedules. Manufacturing, mining and other large industrial operations often run around the clock and their employees report for work in shifts. The huge number of variables and the amount of knowledge that needs to be structured, integrated and synthesized forces the need for a system analysis process that is able to deal with such complexity. Work flexibility is a very important issue in Chile and in the rest of the world. One of the main problems of a flexible work process is handling shiftwork systems with their economic, health, social, family and environmental consequences.