Multi-criteria decision-making in whole process design

Abstract

In recent years, the chemical and pharmaceutical industries have faced increased development times and costs with fewer novel chemicals being discovered. This has resulted in many companies focusing on innovative research and development as they consider this key to business success. In particular, a number of leading industrial organisations have adopted the principles of Whole Process Design (WPD). WPD considers the optimisation of the entire product development process, from raw materials to end product, rather than focusing on each individual unit operation. The complexity involved in the implementation of WPD requires rationalised decision-making, often with limited or uncertain information. This thesis assesses the most widely applied methods in Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) in conjunction with the results of two interviews and two questionnaires that identified the industrial requirements for decision-making during WPD. From the findings of this work, a novel decision-making methodology was proposed, the outcome of which allows a decision-maker to visually interpret their decision results with associated levels of uncertainty. To validate the proposed methodology, a software framework was developed that incorporates two other decision-making approaches, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and ELimination Et Choix Traduisant la REalité trois (ELECTRE III). The framework was then applied to a number of industrial case studies to validate the application of the proposed methodology.