基于DS/AHP的供应商选择方法

供应商选择方法有很多种，在众多的方法中层次分析法以能够将定性指标定量化而被广泛应用于供应商选择决策中。考虑到供应商选择问题中包含有很多的不确定性而证据理论在处理不确定问题又有着独特的优点，因此本文采用了一种由层次分析法和证据理论结合而产生的DS／AHP决策方法，并将其应用于供应商选择决策问题中，该方法综合了层次分析法和证据理论的优点，可以更科学的进行供应商选择决策，最后通过一个例子说明这种方法在供应商选择中的应用。     

A simulation approach for handling uncertainty in the analytic hierarchy process

Uncertainty considerations are introduced into the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The rank order of decision alternatives depends on two types of related uncertainties: (1) uncertainty regarding the future characteristics of the decision making environment described by a set of scenarios, and (2) uncertainty associated with the decision making judgment regarding each pairwise comparison. A simulation approach for handling both types of related uncertainties in the AHP is described. The example introduced by Saaty and Kearns (1985) is extended here to include uncertainty considerations.     

The analytic hierarchy process with stochastic judgements

The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is a widely-used method for multicriteria decision support based on the hierarchical decomposition of objectives, evaluation of preferences through pairwise comparisons, and a subsequent aggregation into global evaluations. The current paper integrates the AHP with stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis (SMAA), an inverse-preference method, to allow the pairwise comparisons to be uncertain. A simulation experiment is used to assess how the consistency of judgements and the ability of the SMAA-AHP model to discern the best alternative deteriorates as uncertainty increases. Across a range of simulated problems results indicate that, according to conventional benchmarks, judgements are likely to remain consistent unless uncertainty is severe, but that the presence of uncertainty in almost any degree is sufficient to make the choice of best alternative unclear.     

A Thurstonian view of the analytic hierarchy process

The application of deterministic decision models in situations characterized by noise and uncertainty is likely to produce results of questionable value. In this paper, some very simple probabilistic models are developed and substituted for the deterministic scales used in the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). It is shown that the use of these probabilistic models can extend the domain of AHP to situations, such as consensual or group decision making, that possess significant amounts of uncertainty. In addition, explicit measures of the variation present in the evaluation of decision alternatives and attributes are obtained.     

On the extent analysis method for fuzzy AHP and its applications

In a paper by Chang [D.Y. Chang, Applications of the extent analysis method on fuzzy AHP, European Journal of Operational Research 95 (1996) 649–655], an extent analysis method on fuzzy AHP was proposed to obtain a crisp priority vector from a triangular fuzzy comparison matrix. It is found that the extent analysis method cannot estimate the true weights from a fuzzy comparison matrix and has led to quite a number of misapplications in the literature. In this paper, we show by examples that the priority vectors determined by the extent analysis method do not represent the relative importance of decision criteria or alternatives and that the misapplication of the extent analysis method to fuzzy AHP problems may lead to a wrong decision to be made and some useful decision information such as decision criteria and fuzzy comparison matrices not to be considered. We show these problems to avoid any possible misapplications in the future.     

Stochastic decision making using multiplicative AHP

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) has found a number of applications in decision making problems. Its multiplicative version, called the Multiplicative AHP (MAHP), has been proposed to overcome some of the criticisms of the conventional version. Both these methodologies operate by obtaining expert judgements on the ratios of perceived importance of objects under consideration. The literature on MAHP in dealing with these judgements, when they are specified without uncertainty, is well developed. However, stochastic aspects of these judgements have not received much consideration in the literature so far. Stochastic judgements are considered in this paper for use in MAHP. The fact that weight derivation in MAHP can be handled using mathematical programming is exploited and the literature on stochastic programming is adapted to the MAHP context.     

A two-phase algorithm for consensus building in AHP-group decision making

Group decision making through the AHP has received significant attention in contemporary research, the primary focus of which has been on the issues of consistency and consensus building. In this paper, we concentrate on the latter and present a two-phase algorithm based on the optimal clustering of decision makers (members of a group) into sub groups followed by consensus building both within sub groups and between sub groups. Two-dimensional Sammon’s mapping is proposed as a tool for generating an approximate visualization of sub groups identified in multidimensional vector space, while the consensus convergence model is suggested for reaching agreement amongst individuals in and between sub groups. As a given, all decision makers evaluate the same decision elements within the AHP framework and produce individual scores of these decision elements. The consensual scores are obtained through the iterative procedure and the final scores are declared as the group decision. The results of two selected numerical examples are compared with two sets of results: the results obtained by the commonly used geometric mean aggregation method and also the results obtained if the consensus convergence model is applied directly without the prior clustering of the decision makers. The comparisons indicated the expected differences among the aggregation schemes and the final group scores. The matrices of respect values in the consensus convergence model, obtained for cases when the decision makers are optimally clustered and when they are not, show that in the latter case the decision makers receive lower weights of respect from other members in the group. Various tests showed that our approach is efficient in cases when no clusters can be visually and undoubtedly identified, especially if the number of group members is high.     

A modified procedure for synthesising ratio judgements in the analytic hierarchy process

The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) has been widely applied to solve problems arising in group decision making, by synthesising different or conflicting judgements. However, directly synthesising conflicting judgements by calculating the geometric mean of preference weights (ratios) in AHP may not reach consensus from all members in a decision making group, especially, when those members represent the stakeholders of the decision making problem. This study proposes a new method that uses the genetic algorithm and utility function to synthesise preference weights to prevent this fallacy occurring when implementing the classical AHP approach. Using the proposed method, the final decision can be achieved with only minimally-adjusted preference weights.     

Weighting the competitiveness factors for container ports under conflicting interests

Generally, an evaluation of container port competitiveness is regarded as amultiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem which involves variousstakeholders with conflicting interests. To solve MCDM problems, the analytichierarchy process (AHP) method has been popular, but problems arise in managinguncertainty among decision makers, and contradictory opinions. The key issuediscussed in this paper is how to obtain compromise weights (CWs) using acombined AHP procedure. This procedure incorporates Dempster-Shafer theory foreliminating uncertainty in the evaluation, and a levelling process for adjustingthe contradictory opinions of each group, a so-called multiple decision-makinggroup problem. For an empirical analysis, container ports located in NortheastAsia, known to exhibit severe port competition, were selected. Using an adoptionof the methodology, the matrix of CWs was obtained. Using this matrix permits anexact evaluation of competitiveness in the sampled container ports.     

基于DEA-AHP的物流系统绩效评价研究

本文在建立物流系统综合评价层次模型的基础上,基于数据包络分析方法无法考虑决策者偏好及层次分析方法主观性影响过大的缺陷,提出了DEA和AHP相结合的方法对物流系统绩效进行了评价,不同于以往文献对两种方法结合的研究从本质上没有体现决策者偏好的问题,本文提出的方法首先使用AHP方法求出各一层指标的权重,再分别对每个一层指标下的因素使用DEA方法求出各系统的相对效率值,最后将各指标权重和相对效率值结合求出各物流系统的整体效率值并进行排序,该方法在有效地结合两种方法优点的同时,很好的弥补了两种方法的不足,最终的实例分析体现了该方法的适用性和可操作性。     

Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process: Fallacy of the popular methods

The fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (fuzzy AHP) is a very popular decision making method and literally thousands of papers have been published about it. However, we find the basic logic of this approach has problems. From its methodology, the definition and operational rules of fuzzy numbers not only oppose the main logic of fuzzy set theory, but also oppose the basic principles of the AHP. In dealing with the outcomes, fuzzy AHP does not give a generally accepted method to rank fuzzy numbers and a way to check the validity of the results. Besides, we discuss the validity of the Analytic Hierarchy/Network Process (AHP/ANP) in complex and uncertain environments and find that fuzzy ANP is a false proposition because there is no fuzzy priority in the super matrix which provides the basis for the ANP. Although fuzzy AHP has been applied in many cases and cited hundreds of times, we hoped that those who use fuzzy AHP would understand the problems associated with this method.     

基于最大长度区间的区间权重向量标准化方法

区间权重向量在不确定多准则决策分析和AHP中都发挥重要作用,鉴于区间权重向量的不确定性,区间权重向量的标准化问题成为研究的一个热点.在相关研究的基础上,提出基于最大长度区间的区间权重向量标准化方法.首先为了更好理解标准化权重向量,给出标准化区间权重向量的一个等价命题;其次,提出简便的标准化区间权重向量的判定方法,并提出不同情形下,通过调整最大长度区间的区间权重向量的标准化方法;最后,通过算例及与其他方法的对比,说明该方法是简便有效的.     

Treating measurement uncertainty in industrial conformity control

Every conformity control method based on measurements is subject to uncertainty, which distorts the decision. In the traditional conformity control approaches, this uncertainty is an inherent part of the deviation of the observed characteristic; however, the distribution of the real product characteristic may differ from the distribution of measurement uncertainty, which obscures the real conformity or nonconformity. The specification and consideration of this uncertainty are particularly necessary if it is high and/or the consequences associated with the decision errors are severe. This paper studies the effects of the cost structure associated with the decision outcomes and the skewness and kurtosis of the measurement uncertainty distribution. The proposed method can specify when and how the measurement uncertainty should be taken into account to increase the expected profit associated with the decision.     

The analytic hierarchy process in medical and health care decision making: A literature review

This paper presents a literature review of the application of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to important problems in medical and health care decision making. The literature is classified by year of publication, health care category, journal, method of analyzing alternatives, participants, and application type. Very few articles were published prior to 1988 and the level of activity has increased to about three articles per year since 1997. The 50 articles reviewed were classified in seven categories: diagnosis, patient participation, therapy/treatment, organ transplantation, project and technology evaluation and selection, human resource planning, and health care evaluation and policy. The largest number of articles was found in the project and technology evaluation and selection category (14) with substantial activity in patient participation (9), therapy/treatment (8), and health care evaluation and policy (8). The AHP appears to be a promising support tool for shared decision making between patient and doctor, evaluation and selection of therapies and treatments, and the evaluation of health care technologies and policies. We expect that AHP research will continue to be an important component of health care and medical research.     

Group decision making in a multiple criteria environment: A case using the AHP in software selection

This paper reports the results of a case study where the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique was employed to support the selection of a multi-media authorizing system (MAS) in a group decision environment. Three MAS products were identified and ultimately ranked using the AHP. Six software engineers, who are technically competent and experienced, participated in our study. These engineers were trained to use the AHP and asked to apply this technique to select the most appropriate MAS product for adoption. A post-study survey and interview were conducted with all the engineers to collect further feedback on the use of the AHP, as compared to their frequently used Delphi technique, in supporting group decisions. The experiment results and survey findings indicated that the AHP is preferable to Delphi as the AHP helps group members center a discussion around objectives, rather than alternatives. We also found the AHP to be more conducive to consensus building in group decision settings.     

Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process: A logarithmic fuzzy preference programming methodology

Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) proves to be a very useful methodology for multiple criteria decision-making in fuzzy environments, which has found substantial applications in recent years. The vast majority of the applications use a crisp point estimate method such as the extent analysis or the fuzzy preference programming (FPP) based nonlinear method for fuzzy AHP priority derivation. The extent analysis has been revealed to be invalid and the weights derived by this method do not represent the relative importance of decision criteria or alternatives. The FPP-based nonlinear priority method also turns out to be subject to significant drawbacks, one of which is that it may produce multiple, even conflict priority vectors for a fuzzy pairwise comparison matrix, leading to entirely different conclusions. To address these drawbacks and provide a valid yet practical priority method for fuzzy AHP, this paper proposes a logarithmic fuzzy preference programming (LFPP) based methodology for fuzzy AHP priority derivation, which formulates the priorities of a fuzzy pairwise comparison matrix as a logarithmic nonlinear programming and derives crisp priorities from fuzzy pairwise comparison matrices. Numerical examples are tested to show the advantages of the proposed methodology and its potential applications in fuzzy AHP decision-making.     

ERP system selection using a simulation-based AHP approach: a case of Korean homeshopping company

An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is a critical investment that can significantly affect future competitiveness and performance of a company. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method is often applied to select an ERP system since it is well suited to multiple criteria decision-making problems. This study presents a simulation-based AHP (SiAHP) method for group decision making and is applied to the real-world problem of selecting a suitable ERP system for a Korean homeshopping company. To enhance the fitness of a group AHP method and to facilitate the ERP system selection process, this paper proposes a simulation-based approach for building a group consensus instead of forming point estimates that are aggregated from individual preference judgments. To be specific, the proposed method is based on observations from empirically observed frequency distributions and does not use aggregation procedures, compared to typical group AHP for obtaining a group solution. This approach, reflecting the diversification of group members' opinions as they are, is conceived to be useful as a tool for obtaining insights into agreements and disagreements with respect to the alternatives among the individuals of a group. The real-world example demonstrates the feasibility of our proposed approach.     

Methods based on data envelopment analysis for deriving group priorities in analytic hierarchy process

In recent years, group decision making has become one of the important issues in multiple criteria decision making, and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is considered an appropriate method when dealing with this kind of problems. Many different approaches for attaining a group valuation in AHP have been developed. The applications most commonly employ the weighted geometric mean method. In the paper, we focus on the group AHP methods, which are based on the data envelopment analysis (DEA). First we discuss two methods for deriving a group priority vector: Wang and Chin’s DEA group method and Hosseinian et al.’s DEA-WDGD. Further, we propose a new WGMDEA method and compare all three methods with the WGMM on theoretical examples and on a real case study. The objective of the case study is to examine the current state of forest owners’ cooperatives. An analysis of the influence of forest owners’ cooperatives on private forest management in Slovenia was put forward. The A’WOT analysis, which is a combined method of AHP and SWOT analysis, an approach for identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the object under consideration, was performed.     

A fuzzy extension of Analytic Hierarchy Process based on the constrained fuzzy arithmetic

The aim of the paper is to highlight the necessity of applying the concept of constrained fuzzy arithmetic instead of the concept of standard fuzzy arithmetic in a fuzzy extension of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Emphasis is put on preserving the reciprocity of pairwise comparisons during the computations. For deriving fuzzy weights from a fuzzy pairwise comparison matrix, we consider a fuzzy extension of the geometric mean method and simplify the formulas proposed by Enea and Piazza (Fuzzy Optim Decis Mak 3:39–62, 2004). As for the computation of the overall fuzzy weights of alternatives, we reveal the inappropriateness of applying the concept of standard fuzzy arithmetic and propose the proper formulas where the interactions among the fuzzy weights are taken into account. The advantage of our approach is elimination of the false increase of uncertainty of the overall fuzzy weights. Finally, we advocate the validity of the proposed fuzzy extension of AHP; we show by an illustrative example that by neglecting the information about uncertainty of intensity of preferences we lose an important part of knowledge about the decision making problem which can cause the change in ordering of alternatives.     

模糊层次分析法及其在优化建材连锁配送方案中的应用

本文首先说明模糊ＡＨＰ方法是在传统的ＡＨＰ方法的基础上，考虑到人们对复杂事物判断的模糊性，提出程度分析和综合决策理论，并介绍了模糊ＡＨＰ方法的主要理论及步骤。最后把它用于建材连锁配送系统模式的评价，可将专家对诸方案指标体系所进行的带有模糊性判断，通过定量计算，转化为对连锁配送系统模式的排序，从而达到选优的目的。