Employment of PROMETHEE Approach for Selecting Suitable Yarn for Weft Knitting Process Considering Drawing Frame Variables

The improvement of yarn properties is an obligatory but a difficult task to get a quality product and to enhance efficiency of production processes. For this purpose it is necessary to create a close compatibility between yarn characteristics and subsequent processes requirements. A survey of the literature will reveal that, there are various researches in which statistical approaches have been employed to introduce appropriate yarn quality parameters in accordance with the requirements of next processes. But, mentioned analysis is a multi-criteria decision making where the differences between the values of the yam parameters and preferences of the producer about yarn characteristics to get a product with defined properties should be considered. However, this goal can not be achieved by using statistical methods. Therefore, this paper makes an attempt to apply preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluations (PROMETHEE) for the first time in the field of textile science in selecting suitable drawing frame variables for 30 Ne rotor spun yam intended to be used for weft knitting process. The performances of three variables in a drawing frame were evaluated based on seven quality parameters of forty eight rotor spun yarns using this algorithm. Final ranking was elicited in accordance with PROMETHEE method. Consequently, sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the stability of the proposed final ranking.