Using AHP Multiple Criteria Decision Making Approach for Selecting a Type of Industrial Plant at Risk on Fire

Fire can cause death, serious injury, and significant damage to properties. Industrial plants are dangerous places for fires. In the past, industrial fires have occurred more often than they should. Many industries are at high risk of fire due to the nature of work, and unfortunately it only takes one mistake to cause a serious life-threatening fire. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method is particularly suitable for modeling qualitative criteria and has found extensive applications in a wide variety of areas. In this paper we will focus on the AHP multiple criteria decision making approach for selecting a type of industrial plant at risk of fire in Thailand. The data were analyzed using Expert Choice11 software. Results showed that the type of 53 (Business related to plastic products) is reasonable for selection as a pilot plant for fire safety measurement with a corresponding consistency ratio of 0.06 C.R.≤0.09 for 4×4 pairwise comparison matrix. The pairwise comparison matrix is thought to have acceptable consistency and its normalized principle right eigenvector can be used as the weights of criteria. Limitations and future work of this study are also discussed.