The selection of project management software by FAHP and FMCDM in automobile R&D process

Abstract

The selection of project management (PM) software is a complex issue and has significant impacts to the efficiency of the automobile research & development (R&D) process. Given two alternatives based on critical path method (CPM) and critical chain project management (CCPM) respectively, decision-makers usually cause confusion. This paper analyzed the characteristic of automobile R&D project and developed an evaluation model based on the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and fuzzy multiple criteria decision making (FMCDM) methods, which can help the managers in automobile industry to select more appropriate software in the course of product R&D. In particular, the FAHP method is used to obtain the weights of evaluation criteria, and the FMCDM method is used to determine the final rank of the software. The uncertainty and vagueness in evaluation procedure were presented as the fuzzy triangular numbers. The proposed method is applied to the case study of evaluating the performance of PM software based on CPM and CCPM respectively for a car manufacturer. The result of evaluation not only assisted managers in choosing suitable software but also outline the trend in development of CCPM software.