Incremental analysis for MCDM with an application to group TOPSIS

The study aims to exploit incremental analysis or marginal analysis to overcome the drawbacks of ratio scales utilized in various multi-criteria or multi-attribute decision making (MCDM/MADM) techniques. In the proposed 11-step procedure, multiple criteria of alternatives are first reorganized as two categories – benefits and costs – and decision information will be manipulated separately. The performances of alternatives are then evaluated on their incremental benefit–cost ratio, and the rank can be obtained by applying the group TOPSIS (technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution) model (Shih et al., 2007). Two representations of cost, i.e., a cost index and utility index, are proposed in the model to better-fit real-world situations. In addition, some considerations on costs and input–output relations are also discussed in order to understand the essentials of incremental analysis. In the final part, a case of robot selection demonstrates the suggested model to be both robust and efficient in a group decision-making environment.