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.

Models, Methods, Concepts and Applications of the Analytic Hierarchy Process is a volume dedicated to selected applications of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) focused on three themes: economics, the social sciences, and the linking of measurement with human values. (1) The AHP offers economists a substantially different approach to dealing with economic problems through ratio scales. The main mathematical models on which economics has based its quantitative thinking up to now are utility theory, which uses interval scales, and linear programming. We hope that the variety of examples included here can perhaps stimulate researchers in economics to try applying this new approach. (2) The second theme is concerned with the social sciences. The AHP offers psychologists and political scientists the methodology to quantify and derive measurements for intangibles. We hope that the examples included in this book will encourage them to examine the methods of AHP in terms of the problems they seek to solve. (3) The third theme is concerned with providing people in the physical and engineering sciences with a quantitative method to link hard measurement to human values. In such a process one needs to interpret what the measurements mean. A number is useless until someone understands what it means. It can have different meanings in different problems. Ten dollars are plenty to satisfy one's hunger but are useless by themselves in buying a new car. Such measurements are only indicators of the state of a system, but do not relate to the values of the human observers of that system. AHP methods can help resolve the conflicts between hard measurement data and human values.

This fully revised and updated second edition includes five new chapters addressing the nature of the eigenvector and its applications, including selected uses of the analytic hierarchy process in economic, social, political, and technological areas.

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.

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.

This book traces the history of the concept of work from its earliest stages and shows that its further formalization leads to equilibrium principle and to the principle of virtual works, and so pointing the way ahead for future research and applications. The idea that something remains constant in a machine operation is very old and has been expressed by many mathematicians and philosophers such as, for instance, Aristotle. Thus, a concept of energy developed. Another important idea in machine operation is Archimedes' lever principle. In modern times the concept of work is analyzed in the context of applied mechanics mainly in Lazare Carnot mechanics and the mechanics of the new generation of polytechnical engineers like Navier, Coriolis and Poncelet. In this context the word "work" is finally adopted. These engineers are also responsible for the incorporation of the concept of work into the discipline of economics when they endeavoured to combine the study of the work of machines and men together.

Analytic Hierarchy Process is one of the most widely known and applied multi-criteria decision-making methodologies worldwide. Its potential to analyze complex decision-making problems is enormous. This makes the methodology a very flexible "tool" that can be applied in various scenarios (social, engineering, economic, political, environmental, location, market share, etc.). The idea of the book is to present examples and case studies based on a rigorous scientific approach to Analytic Hierarchy Process. This book is intended to be a useful resource for anyone who deals with this issue.

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.