This book examines the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, its varied uses, as well as its limitations for solving real-world scenarios. While the simplicity of the method compels users to find shortcuts to a real-world problem, it also leads to obtaining wrong results that do not represent reality. By alerting practitioners about the core necessities of a new scenario, this book helps solve this problem, as well as contribute to the field of Multicriteria Decision Making Method (MDCM). The authors use a demonstrative, rather than a theoretical approach, and examine 30 subjects that displays the shortcomings and drawbacks of the AHP. Each one is examined in-depth, discussed, debated and reasoned, using examples, some of them numeric. The book highlights the rationality and common sense of the subjects, and in most cases, validates the criticism by showing through numerical examples, the impossibility of the AHP method to address, let alone solve real-world projects. At the conclusion of each subject, a table is built comparing the similarities and differences between the opinions of the authors and other experts, along with the respective pros and cons.

The purpose of this book is to provide an introduction to the theory and applications in the field of decision making, especially focused on Analytic Hierarchy Process, a structured technique for organizing and analyzing complex decisions, based on mathematics and psychology. It was developed by Prof. Thomas L. Saaty in the 1970s and has been extensively studied and refined since then. The idea of the book is to expand the reader's consciousness to deal with problems regarding the decision making. This book presents some application examples of Analytic Hierarchy. It contains original research and application chapters from different perspectives, and covers different areas such as supply chain, environmental engineering, safety, and social issues. This book is intended to be a useful resource for anyone who deals with decision making problems.

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a prominent and powerful tool for making decisions in situations involving multiple objectives. Models, Methods, Concepts and Applications of the Analytic Hierarchy Process, 2nd Edition applies the AHP in order to solve problems focused on the following three themes: economics, the social sciences, and the linking of measurement with human values. For economists, the AHP offers a substantially different approach to dealing with economic problems through ratio scales. Psychologists and political scientists can use the methodology to quantify and derive measurements for intangibles. Meanwhile researchers in the physical and engineering sciences can apply the AHP methods to help resolve the conflicts between hard measurement data and human values. Throughout the book, each of these topics is explored utilizing real life models and examples, relevant to problems in today’s society. This new edition has been updated and includes five new chapters that includes discussions of the following: - The eigenvector and why it is necessary - A summary of ongoing research in the Middle East that brings together Israeli and Palestinian scholars to develop concessions from both parties - A look at the Medicare Crisis and how AHP can be used to understand the problems and help develop ideas to solve them.

This book provides a systematic way of how to make better decisions in water resources management. The applications of three weighting methods namely rating, ranking, and ratio are discussed in this book. Additionally, data mining on keywords is presented using three popular scholarly databases: Science Direct, Scopus, and SciVerse. Four abbreviated keywords (MCDM, MCDA, MCA, MADM) representing multi-criteria decision-making were used and these three databases were searched for different popular weighting methods for a period of 13 years (2000-2012). The book provides also a review of weighting methods applied in various multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods and also presents survey results on priority ranking of watershed management criteria undertaken by 30 undergraduate and postgraduate students from the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

This text takes a broad view of multiobjective programming, emphasizing the methods most useful for continuous problems. It reviews methods in the context of public decision-making problems. 1978 edition.

Management science is a di scipl ine dedicated to the development of techniques that enable decision makers to cope with the increasing complexity of our world. The early burst of excitement which was spawned by the development and successful applications of linear programming to problems in both the public and private sectors has challenged researchers to develop even more sophisticated methods to deal with the complex nature of decision making. Sophistication, however, does not always trans 1 ate into more complex mathematics. Professor Thomas L. Saaty was working for the U. S. Defense Department and for the U. S. Department of State in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In these positions, Professor Saaty was exposed to some of the most complex decisions facing the world: arms control, the Middle East problem, and the development of a transport system for a Third World country. While having made major contributions to numerous areas of mathematics and the theory of operations research, he soon realized that one did not need complex mathematics to come to grips with these decision problems, just the right mathematics! Thus, Professor Saaty set out to develop a mathematically-based technique for analyzing complex situations which was sophisticated in its simplicity. This technique became known as the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and has become very successful in helping decision makers to structure and analyze a wide range of problems.

Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) has been one of the fastest growing problem areas in many disciplines. The central problem is how to evaluate a set of alternatives in terms of a number of criteria. Although this problem is very relevant in practice, there are few methods available and their quality is hard to determine. Thus, the question `Which is the best method for a given problem?' has become one of the most important and challenging ones. This is exactly what this book has as its focus and why it is important. The author extensively compares, both theoretically and empirically, real-life MCDM issues and makes the reader aware of quite a number of surprising `abnormalities' with some of these methods. What makes this book so valuable and different is that even though the analyses are rigorous, the results can be understood even by the non-specialist. Audience: Researchers, practitioners, and students; it can be used as a textbook for senior undergraduate or graduate courses in business and engineering.

This book offers a simple introduction to the fundamentals and applications of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) without a pre-requisite for a sophisticated mathematical background. It provides a quick and intuitive understanding of the methodology using spreadsheet examples and explains in a step-by-step fashion how to use Super Decisions, a freely available software developed by the Creative Decisions Foundations. The book is intended to be a resource for decision makers with little or no exposure to the field of Operations Research (OR); however, the book can be used as a very gentle introduction to the AHP methodology and/or as an AHP hands-on supplement for standard OR textbooks. AHP is an intuitive and mathematically simple methodology in the field of multi-criteria decision making. Because of this, most AHP books assume the reader has basic OR mathematical background. However, AHP simplicity suggests that decision makers from all disciplines can take advantage of the methodology without struggling with the mathematics behind it. To fulfill this need, this book delivers a quick and practical understanding of the method that can be useful for corporate executives.

This work examines all the fuzzy multicriteria methods recently developed, such as fuzzy AHP, fuzzy TOPSIS, interactive fuzzy multiobjective stochastic linear programming, fuzzy multiobjective dynamic programming, grey fuzzy multiobjective optimization, fuzzy multiobjective geometric programming, and more. Each of the 22 chapters includes practical applications along with new developments/results. This book may be used as a textbook in graduate operations research, industrial engineering, and economics courses. It will also be an excellent resource, providing new suggestions and directions for further research, for computer programmers, mathematicians, and scientists in a variety of disciplines where multicriteria decision making is needed.