<p>Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM), a process of Additive Manufacturing (AM), becomes a pioneer due to its flexibility and efficiency in various critical sectors like aerospace, automotive, and healthcare. However, determining the optimal printing orientation and material selection is still a complex decision-making problem due to multiple conflicting factors and applications. On the other hand, it is determined that the printing material and orientation significantly affect the quality, cost, and efficiency of the printed object. Therefore, a strong decision-making model is required to guide manufacturers in selecting the most appropriate combination of printing material and orientation. This study proposed a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) model and constructed a comparative analysis to determine the rank of the alternatives using Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution. The importance of each criterion is determined by the Analytic Hierarchy Process, Criteria-Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation, and the combination of these two methods for determining the best alternative among eight alternatives. These methods evaluated ABS_P2, ABS_P1, and PLA_P2 as the top-ranked alternatives based on four key criteria: printing time (hours), material cost (INR per unit), material required (m), and weight of component (gm). Finally, model stability is validated using sensitivity analysis by considering equal weights and weight variation of higher value criteria (± 5% and ± 10%). The method is generally resilient, though minor rank reversals may occur with closely scored alternatives. This study will be advantageous for small- and large-scale industrial practitioners and AM experts for making decisions in crucial scenarios.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>