INSDECM—an interactive procedure for stochastic multicriteria decision problems

A new interactive technique for a discrete stochastic multiattribute decision making problem is proposed in this paper. It is assumed that performance probability distribution for each action on each attribute is known. Two concepts are combined in the procedure: stochastic dominance and interactive approach. The first one is employed for generating efficient actions and constructing rankings of actions with respect to attributes. The second concept is used when the communication between the DM and the model is conducted. It is assumed that decision maker’s restrictions are defined by specifying minimal or maximal values of scalar criteria measuring either expected outcome or variability of outcomes. As such restrictions are, in general, not consistent with stochastic dominance rules, we suggest verifying this consistency and asking the decision maker to redefine inconsistent restrictions.     

An interactive dynamic programming approach to multicriteria discrete programming

Several interactive schemes for solving multicriteria discrete programming problems are developed under a dynamic programming framework. It is assumed that the decision maker's preference structure satisfies the conditions of transitivity, monotonicity, and nonsatiation. Hybrid procedures are also structured by including branch and bound ideas into the recursions. Initial computational results are offered.     

Insoluble multicriteria linear programming problems

This note concerns a method for analyzing insoluble multicriteria linear programming problems.     

Postoptimal analysis in multicriteria linear programming

The aim of the paper is to present the postoptimal analysis of a chosen extreme efficient point in multicriteria linear programming. There are three cases considered: one objective function coefficient change, objective function addition and objective function removal. The proven theorems allow us to create methods based on the analysis of a simplex tableau.     

A multicriteria fuzzy linear programming method for water supply system development planning

A method is presented for solving a multicriteria linear program where the coefficients of the objective functions and the constraints are fuzzy numbers of the L-R type. Assuming the aspiration levels for particular criteria to be fuzzy and basing on comparison of fuzzy numbers, the original problem is transformed into a multicriteria linear fractional program. The latter is solved using an interactive technique involving a linear programming procedure in the calculation phase. This method has been elaborated with a view to the application to the development of a water supply system.     

Modifications and implementation of the ellipsoid algorithm for linear programming

We give some modifications of the ellipsoid algorithm for linear programming and describe a numerically stable implementation. We are concerned with practical problems where user-supplied bounds can usually be provided. Our implementation allows constraint dropping and updates bounds on the optimal value, and should be able to terminate with an indication of infeasibility or with a provably good feasible solution in a moderate number of iterations.The work of this author was supported in part by the U.S. Army Research Office under Grant DAAG29-77-G-0114 and the National Science Foundation under Grant MCS-8006065.The work of this author was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant ECS-7921279.     

Strange: An interactive method for multi-objective linear programming under uncertainty

In the field of investment planning within a time horizon, problems typically involve multiple objectives, and basic data are uncertain. In a large number of cases, these decision problems can be written as linear programming problems in which time dependent uncertainties affect the coefficients and the right hand side of constraints. Given the possibility of defining plausible scenarios on basic data, discrete sets of such coefficients are given, each with its subjective probability of occurrence. The corresponding structure is then characteristic for Multi-Objective Stochastic Linear Programming (MOSLP).In the paper, an interactive procedure is described to obtain a best compromise for such a MOSLP problem. This algorithm, called Strange, extends the Stem method to take the random aspects into account. It involves in particular, the concepts of stochastic programming with recourse. In its interactive steps, the efficiency projection techniques are used to provide the decision-maker with detailed graphical information on efficient solution families.As an illustration of the successive steps, a didactic example is solved in some detail, and the results of a case study in energy planning are given.     

Vector linear programming in zero-sum multicriteria matrix games

In this paper, a multiple-objective linear problem is derived from a zero-sum multicriteria matrix game. It is shown that the set of efficient solutions of this problem coincides with the set of Paretooptimal security strategies (POSS) for one of the players in the original game. This approach emphasizes the existing similarities between the scalar and multicriteria matrix games, because in both cases linear programming can be used to solve the problems. It also leads to different scalarizations which are alternative ways to obtain the set of all POSS. The concept of ideal strategy for a player is introduced, and it is established that a pair of Pareto saddle-point strategies exists if both players have ideal strategies. Several examples are included to illustrate the results in the paper.     

An interactive fuzzy satisficing method for multiobjective stochastic linear programming problems through an expectation model

For decision making problems involving uncertainty, both stochastic programming as an optimization method based on the theory of probability and fuzzy programming representing the ambiguity by fuzzy concept have been developing in various ways. In this paper, we focus on multiobjective linear programming problems with random variable coefficients in objective functions and/or constraints. For such problems, as a fusion of these two approaches, after incorporating fuzzy goals of the decision maker for the objective functions, we propose an interactive fuzzy satisficing method for the expectation model to derive a satisficing solution for the decision maker. An illustrative numerical example is provided to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method.     

A procedure for one-parametric linear programming

A procedure is proposed for the parametric linear programming problem where all the coefficients are linear or polynomial functions of a scalar parameter. The solution vector and the optimum value are determined explicitly as rational functions of the parameter. In addition to standard linear programming technique, only the determination of eigenvalues is required. The procedure is compared to those by Dinkelbach and Zsigmond, and a numerical example is given.     

A class of practical interactive branch and bound algorithms for multicriteria integer programming

A practical interactive solution approach to multicriteria integer programming problems is developed. The problem is solved by a branch-and-bound method that employs the Zionts and Wallenius procedure [23] for solving the multicriteria linear programming problem. The development of algorithms for multicriteria decision problems itself is a multicriteria problem, which involves the simultaneous minimization of the number of questions asked of the decision maker and the solution time. Two branch-and-bound algorithms that follow different search strategies to meet different levels of these criteria have been developed. Further, two families of hybrid algorithms that incorporate a combination of the strategies of the two algorithms have also been developed. Strategies for the exploration of the decision-maker's preference structure are discussed. Computational experience with the algorithms is presented. The class of algorithms represents a collection of viable solution strategies applicable to a variety of decision-making styles.     

An interactive method of tackling uncertainty in interval multiple objective linear programming

Mathematical programming models for decision support must explicitly take account of the treatment of the uncertainty associated with the model coefficients along with multiple and conflicting objective functions. Interval programming just assumes that information about the variation range of some (or all) of the coefficients is available. In this paper, we propose an interactive approach for multiple objective linear programming problems with interval coefficients that deals with the uncertainty in all the coefficients of the model. The presented procedures provide a global view of the solutions in the best and worst case coefficient scenarios and allow performing the search for new solutions according to the achievement rates of the objective functions regarding both the upper and lower bounds. The main goal is to find solutions associated with the interval objective function values that are closer to their corresponding interval ideal solutions. It is also possible to find solutions with non-dominance relations regarding the achievement rates of the upper and lower bounds of the objective functions considering interval coefficients in the whole model.     

Using aspiration levels in an interactive interior multiobjective linear programming algorithm

In this paper, we propose the use of an interior-point linear programming algorithm for multiple objective linear programming (MOLP) problems. At each iteration, a Decision Maker (DM) is asked to specify aspiration levels for the various objectives, and an achievement scalarizing function is applied to project aspiration levels onto the nondominated set. The interior-point algorithm is used to find an interior solution path from a starting solution to a nondominated solution corresponding to the optimum of the achievement scalarizing function. The proposed approach allows the DM to re-specify aspiration levels during the solution process and thus steer the interior solution path toward different areas in objective space. We illustrate the use of the approach with a numerical example.     

Using two successive subgradients in the ellipsoid method for nonlinear programming

A variant of the ellipsoid method for nonlinear programming is introduced to enhance the speed of convergence. This variant is based on a new simple scheme to reduce the ellipsoid volume by using two center cuts generated in two consecutive iterations of the ellipsoid method. Computational tests show a significant improvement in computational efficiency. The tests show that the improvement is more significant for larger-size problems.     

An interactive weighted Tchebycheff procedure for multiple objective programming

The procedure samples the efficient set by computing the nondominated criterion vector that is closest to an ideal criterion vector according to a randomly weighted Tchebycheff metric. Using ‘filtering’ techniques, maximally dispersed representatives of smaller and smaller subsets of the set of nondominated criterion vectors are presented at each iteration. The procedure has the advantage that it can converge to non-extreme final solutions. Especially suitable for multiple objective linear programming, the procedure is also applicable to integer and nonlinear multiple objective programs.     

A note on weak sharp minima in multicriteria linear programming

In this note, the set of weak Pareto solutions of a multicriteria linear programming problem (MCLP, for short) is proved to be a set of weak sharp minima for another residual function of MCLP, i.e., the minimum of the natural residual functions of finitely many scalarization problems of MCLP, which is less than the natural residual function of MCLP. This can be viewed as a slight improvement of a result due to Deng and Yang. Some examples are given to illustrate these results.     

A procedure for parameterizing a constraint in linear programming

A post-optimal procedure for parameterizing a constraint in linear programming is proposed. In the derivation of the procedure, the technique of pivotal operations (Jordan eliminations) is applied. The procedure is compared to another by Orchard-Hays [2], and a numerical example of the procedure is provided.     

Regularized extragradient method for solving parametric multicriteria equilibrium programming problem

A regularized extragradient method is designed for solving unstable multicriteria equilibrium programming problems. The convergence of the method is investigated, and a regularizing operator is constructed.     

Continuous extragradient method for a parametric multicriteria equilibrium programming problem

We consider a multicriteria equilibrium programming problem including, as special cases, the mathematical programming problem, the problem of finding a saddle point, the multicriteria problem of finding a Pareto point, the minimization problem with an equilibrium choice of an admissible set, etc. We suggest a continuous version of the extragradient method with prediction and analyze its convergence.