Determination and evaluation of effective criteria to location selection the optimal for establishing a Fluting Paper mills from Agricultural Residues of Mazandaran province

Location selection for factory competitiveness in the market place plays an important role and should be chosen so that will leads achievement of the strategic advantages compared with other competitors. The objective of this study was determination of the effective criteria for decision making to select the most suitable location for establishing a Fluting Paper mills from Agricultural Residues. For this purpose، effective criteria were divided into five major groups: Material and Product، Facilities and limitations of regional (infrastructure)، Technical and Human، Economical، Rules & Regulations as well as 33 sub-criteria، after preliminary investigation، preparatory observation، and an interview with some of the paper producers and relevant experts. A hierarchy was designed based on five major groups of criteria and then the priority rates of obtained criteria and sub-criteria were determined by Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) after compiling expert''s opinions via questionnaire. Results have shown that among 33 determined effective criteria in location selection of Fluting Paper mills from Agricultural Residues، the sub-criteria of Supply residual amount، Ensure the supply of residual، cost purchasing of raw material، cost of transporting raw material have the highest priorities respectively.