Decision Making for Selection of Suitable Location for Plywood and Veneer Manufacturing Units in Iran

The objective of this paper is to develop a method for selecting the most suitable location for
establishing a wood industry unit. Decision making is examined within the framework of benefits,
opportunities, costs, and risks (BOCR), called the merits of the decision. A hierarchy is developed to
prioritize the BOCR in itself, while Analytic Hierarchy Process ratings approach is applied to
evaluate the hierarchy. It is recognized that benefits, opportunities, costs and risks are often not
emphasized proportionately when making a decision. In fact, it is vital to design a decision
supporting system to evaluate them in terms of the values attached to by decision-making person or
organization. A control hierarchy is then created and prioritized using the AHP to evaluate the
"control criteria" of the system. There are a total of 18 control criteria in the system each controlling
a decision network evaluated while using the Analytic Network Process (ANP). This method was
applied for a real case in Iran. There were six potential locations, or in fact alternatives found for the
decision network. The final synthesis of the system indicates Baneh in the province of Kurdistan as
the best choice available.