THE PRIORITIZATION OF TECHNOLOGIES IN A RESEARCH LABORATORY

This paper considers the prioritization of technologies at the Army Materials Technology Laboratory. The authors have worked with the management of the laboratory in identifying the criteria and the technologies to be evaluated. A mathematical model was developed to combine the subjective criteria with a single objective criterion. The three divisions of the laboratory and a technical working group of the Army Materiel Command provided the input data for the model. The criteria weights were determined by the Analytic Hierarchy Process through a hierarchical representation and pairwise comparisons. The results from the three divisions were aggregated to yield a prioritized list of technologies to be used by the management of the laboratory for funding decisions of projects within technology areas.