An Interval Valued Pythagorean Fuzzy AHP–TOPSIS Integrated Model for Ergonomic Assessment of Setup Process under SMED

Single-minute exchange of dies (SMED) is one of the most significant lean tools which reduces the required time for setup operations. The consideration of appropriate ergonomic interferences during the SMED implementation improves working conditions, productivity, and flexibility. The SMED literature has an opportunity for expansion with ergonomic assessment. Moreover, ergonomic assessment studies have various limitations in terms of a broad hierarchy of ergonomic factors and their weighting. Therefore, this study enriches the literature by providing the ergonomic assessment of the setup process through integrating multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) into SMED. In this context, a wide hierarchy of ergonomic risk factors is compiled for ergonomic assessment. The Interval Valued Pythagorean Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (IVPF-AHP) method is used to determine the weights of factors. Then, Fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is used to prioritize setup tasks in terms of ergonomic factors by using the Interval Valued Pythagorean Fuzzy Sets (IVPFSs). The proposed model was validated by applying it to a real-life manufacturing system in the white goods supplier industry. The application results justify the proposed model with a setup time reduction of 58% and an ergonomic improvement of 19%.