Project selection for Lean and Industry 4.0 integration using DEMATEL-AHP and fuzzy VIKOR approaches

Project selection has a significant role in achieving organisational goal in all kinds of manufacturing systems. Among Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies, cyber physical systems (CPS) contribute more than any other digital manufacturing technologies. CPS has the ability to integrate with other prevailing manufacturing management concepts like Lean, Lean Six Sigma and so on. Lean is a process improvement strategy commonly used to identify problems and remove waste to meet customer requirements. The purpose of this study is to identify the best fit project for integrated lean and I4.0 project implementation. Sixteen criteria and three project alternatives are considered. DEMATEL technique is employed first to sort out cause and effect criteria and then AHP technique is employed to prioritise the best project among three alternatives. Three project alternatives were analysed with respect to nine cause criteria and using the relative weight of criteria and project prioritisation has been carried out.