scholarly journals Introducing a multi-criteria evaluation method using Pythagorean fuzzy sets

Kybernetes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vahid Mohagheghi ◽  
Seyed Meysam Mousavi ◽  
Mohammad Mojtahedi ◽  
Sidney Newton
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Fuzzy Sets ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Project Selection ◽  
Scale Construction ◽  
Multi Criteria Decision Making ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Pythagorean Fuzzy Sets ◽  
Multi Criteria Evaluation

Purpose Project selection is a critical decision for any organization seeking to commission a large-scale construction project. Project selection is a complex multi-criteria decision-making problem with significant uncertainty and high risks. Fuzzy set theory has been used to address various aspects of project uncertainty, but with key practical limitations. This study aims to develop and apply a novel Pythagorean fuzzy sets (PFSs) approach that overcomes these key limitations. Design/methodology/approach The study is particular to complex project selection in the context of increasing interest in resilience as a key project selection criterion. Project resilience is proposed and considered in the specific situation of a large-scale construction project selection case study. The case study develops and applies a PFS approach to manage project uncertainty. The case study is presented to demonstrate how PFS is applied to a practical problem of realistic complexity. Working through the case study highlights some of the key benefits of the PFS approach for practicing project managers and decision-makers in general. Findings The PFSs approach proposed in this study is shown to be scalable, efficient, generalizable and practical. The results confirm that the inclusion of last aggregation and last defuzzification avoids the potentially critical information loss and relative lack of transparency. Most especially, the developed PFS is able to accommodate and manage domain expert expressions of uncertainty that are realistic and practical. Originality/value The main novelty of this study is to address project resilience in the form of multi-criteria evaluation and decision-making under PFS uncertainty. The approach is defined mathematically and presented as a six-step approach to decision-making. The PFS approach is given to allow multiple domain experts to focus more clearly on accurate expressions of their agreement and disagreement. PFS is shown to be an important new direction in practical multi-criteria decision-making methods for the project management practitioner.

An integrated fuzzy-based multi-criteria decision-making approach for the selection of an effective manufacturing system

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 280-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ram Prakash ◽  
Sandeep Singhal ◽  
Ashish Agarwal
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Manufacturing Systems ◽  
Manufacturing System ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Sustainable Growth ◽  
Multi Criteria Decision Making ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Manufacturing Company ◽  
Selection Of

Purpose The research paper presents analysis and prioritization of barriers influencing the improvement in the effectiveness of manufacturing system. The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated fuzzy-based multi-criteria decision-making (F-MCDM) framework to assist management of the case company in the selection of most effective manufacturing system. The framework helps in prioritizing the manufacturing systems on the basis of their effectiveness affected by the barriers. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, on the basis of experts’ opinion, five barriers have been identified in a brain-storming session. The problem of prioritization of manufacturing system is a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem and hence is solved by using the F-MCDM approach using dominance matrix. Findings Manufacturing systems’ effectiveness for Indian industries is influenced by barriers. The prioritization of manufacturing systems depends on qualitative factor decision-making criteria. Among the manufacturing systems, leagile manufacturing system is given the highest priority followed by lean manufacturing system, agile manufacturing system, flexible manufacturing system and cellular manufacturing system. Research limitations/implications The selection of an appropriate manufacturing system plays a vital role for sustainable growth of the manufacturing company. In the present work, barriers which influence the effectiveness of manufacturing system have been identified. On the basis of degree of influence of barriers on the effectiveness of the manufacturing system, five alternative manufacturing systems are prioritized. The framework will help the management of the case company to take reasonable decision for the adoption of the appropriate manufacturing system. Practical implications The results of the research work are very useful for the manufacturing companies interested in analyzing the alternative manufacturing systems on the basis of their effectiveness and their sensitivity toward various barriers. The management of Indian manufacturing company will take decision to adopt a manufacturing system whose effectiveness is least sensitive toward barriers. Effectiveness of such manufacturing system will improve with time without having retardation due to barriers. With improved effectiveness of the manufacturing system, the manufacturing company would be able to survive with global competition. The result of the present work is based on the inputs from the case company and may vary for the other manufacturing company. In the present work, only five alternative manufacturing systems and five barriers have been considered. To obtain the better result, MCDM approach with more number of alternative manufacturing systems and barriers might be considered. Originality/value The research work is based on the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process framework and on the case study conducted by the authors. The work carried out is original in nature and based on the real-life case study.

A multi-criteria decision making model for outsourcing maintenance services

Facilities ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 229-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad A. Hassanain ◽  
Sadi Assaf ◽  
Abdul-Mohsen Al-Hammad ◽  
Ahmed Al-Nehmi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Air Conditioning ◽  
Relative Weight ◽  
Equal Weight ◽  
Multi Criteria Decision Making ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Air Conditioning Systems ◽  
Decision Making Model ◽  
Outsourcing Decision

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a multi-criteria decision-making model for use by maintenance managers to consider before making a decision on outsourcing. Design/methodology/approach – Thirty-eight factors were identified for outsourcing maintenance services. These factors were grouped under six categories, namely: “strategic”, “management”, “technological”, “quality”, “economic” and “function characteristics”. The Analytic Hierarchy Process, as a multi-criteria decision-making model, was introduced and applied as an approach for maintenance managers in Saudi Arabian universities to consider before making a decision on outsourcing. A case study on the outsourcing decision of maintenance services of air-conditioning systems was carried out to apply the developed model. Findings – Data analysis indicated that all outsourcing decision groups of factors have almost equal weight, with the “quality” group of factors having the highest weight and the “technological” group of factors having the least weight. Further, the analysis indicated, in general, that the recommended decision for the maintenance managers is to outsource. However, an application of the developed model through a case study on the outsourcing of maintenance services of air-conditioning systems showed that the recommended action is not to outsource. Originality/value – The presented approach in this paper could be of practical benefit to maintenance managers in their decision making of whether or not to outsource maintenance services. The factors in the model were identified through a literature survey of research carried out in different countries. Therefore, the model could be applied in different settings, depending on the relative weight of the factors by the users.

scholarly journals Calculative measures of organising and decision-making in developing countries: the case of a quasi-formal organisation in Ghana

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Agyemang ◽  
Kelum Jayasinghe ◽  
Pawan Adhikari ◽  
Abongeh Tunyi ◽  
Simon Carmel
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Traditional Setting

PurposeThis paper examines how a “quasi-formal” organisation in a developing country engages in informal means of organising and decision-making through the use of calculative measures.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents a case study of a large-scale indigenous manufacturing company in Ghana. Data for the study were collected through the use of semi-structured interviews conducted both onsite and off-site, supplemented by informal conversations and documentary analysis. Weber's notions of rationalities and traditionalism informed the analysis.FindingsThe paper advances knowledge about the practical day-to-day organisation of resources and the associated substantive rational calculative measures used for decision-making in quasi-formal organisations operating in a traditional setting. Instead of formal rational organisational mechanisms such as hierarchical organisational structures, production planning, labour controls and budgetary practices, the organisational mechanisms are found to be shaped by institutional and structural conditions which result from historical, sociocultural and traditional practices of Ghanaian society. These contextual substantive rational calculative measures consist of the native lineage system of inheritance, chieftaincy, trust and the power concealed within historically established sociocultural practices.Originality/valueThis paper is one of a few studies providing evidence of how local and traditional social practices contribute to shaping organising and decision-making activities in indigenous “quasi-formal” organisations. The paper extends our understanding of the nexus between “technical rational” calculative measures and the traditional culture and social practices prevailing in sub-Saharan Africa in general, and Ghana in particular.

Proposing a new hybrid multi-criteria decision-making approach for road maintenance prioritization

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shakiba Sayadinia ◽  
Mohammad Ali Beheshtinia
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
New Combination ◽  
Multi Criteria Decision Making ◽  
Important Criterion ◽  
Road Maintenance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Electre Iii ◽  
Limited Budget ◽  
Copeland Method

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method, by combining the AHP, ELECTRE II, ELECTRE III, ELECTRE IV and Copeland techniques for road maintenance prioritization, in which the roads are evaluated and ranked based on various criteria. The proposed method is applied to four streets in Tehran, as a case study.Design/methodology/approachFirst, a set of criteria for road maintenance was determined and their weights were obtained using the AHP method. Four streets in Tehran, Iran were considered as alternatives and prioritized using the ELECTRE II, ELECTRE III and ELECTRE IV methods. Finally, the results of employing the three methods were integrated using the Copeland method and a final result was obtained.FindingsThe findings of the study suggested that “road safety” is the most important criterion in maintenance and “traffic volume” and “pavement quality index (PCI)” have the second and third rank in importance. Moreover, “The width of the street” is the least important criterion in road maintenance. Additionally, the streets' final ranking was obtained using the proposed method.Research limitations/implicationsThe proposed method helps managers effectively assign their limited budget and resources to roads with higher maintenance priority and as the result, increase the roads efficiency.Originality/valueIn this research, eight main criteria were collected using previous researches and experts' opinions. Also, a new combination of different MCDM techniques is proposed in this research.

“8A” framework for value stream selection – an empirical case study

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 1001-1026 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gopalakrishnan Narayanamurthy ◽  
Anand Gurumurthy ◽  
Roger Moser
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Multi Criteria Decision Making ◽  
Case Study Methodology ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Value Stream ◽  
A Value ◽  
Educational Institute ◽  
Case Organization

Purpose Before initiating the implementation of change for transforming and improving an organization through lean thinking (LT), it has to first select a right value stream. Several implementation studies have been documented in literature, but not many studies have addressed this issue of value stream selection. The purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically validate a framework for selecting a value stream to implement LT. Design/methodology/approach 8A framework is proposed by reviewing the literature on LT implementation case studies. Single case study methodology has been adopted to validate the application of 8A framework for selecting a value stream in an Indian educational institute. Since multiple qualifiers are considered simultaneously, a multi-criteria decision-making approach has been employed for choosing the value stream. Findings Utility of the proposed 8A framework for value stream selection was confirmed through its successful application in an educational institute. Out of three alternatives in the case organization, the teaching alternative was chosen for further LT implementation based on the application of 8A framework. Qualitative cross-validation and sensitivity analysis also confirmed the robustness of the value stream selection made using the 8A framework. Research limitations/implications Framework proposed in this study comprehensively captures the important qualifiers that were overlooked by the widely adopted first tenet of LT. Future research can attempt to generalize the applicability of 8A framework in different contexts including manufacturing, healthcare, software development, etc. A further study can be carried out in two similar case organizations or in two value streams of the same case organization (say in two different plants) to compare the differences in the outcome of lean implementation when one chooses its value stream for LT implementation without the application of the proposed framework, while another chooses it by applying the 8A framework. Practical implications Through structured evaluation of the comprehensive set of qualifiers in 8A framework using a multi-criteria decision making model, an informed decision can be taken by the practitioners in selecting a value stream from the available alternatives before proceeding with the implementation of LT. Originality/value After questioning the existing procedure of value stream selection for LT implementation, this study is the first to propose and validate an 8A framework that overcomes the limitations of the existing procedure. Study is also unique in the choice of the case organization as not many research papers have documented implementation of LT from the context of educational institutes.

Call center performance measurement using intuitionistic fuzzy sets

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 1647-1668
Author(s):  
Basar Oztaysi ◽  
Sezi Cevik Onar ◽  
Cengiz Kahraman ◽  
Muharrem Gok
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Fuzzy Sets ◽  
Call Center ◽  
Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets ◽  
Multi Criteria Decision Making ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Intuitionistic Fuzzy ◽  
Debt Collection ◽  
Interval Valued

PurposeThe companies are struggling to collect invoices due to the decrease in the economic growth. This global trend does not only affect undeveloped countries, but it also has a strong impact on the developed countries. Improving the debt collection process become a significant element to maintain financial stability. The institutions that are specialized on collecting payments, debt collection agencies and their call centers, with their expertise in the field can improve the payment process. Yet, managing evaluating the performance of debt collection agencies is a very hard process that involves uncertainty and imprecision. Performance measurement (PM) is a combination of numerically expressed characteristics which give insight about the success or degree of accomplishment of an activity. PM can be handled in various levels such as individual, team, department or company. The aim of this study is to present a systematic and objective PM method for call centers.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, first an exploratory approach is used to understand the call center measurement problem. Several meetings are done with the representatives of both call center firms and the parent firms that outsource debt collection process. Simultaneously, a broad literature review is conducted. An iterative approach is selected to reach deeper knowledge on the process. New meetings are planned and scope of the literature review has changed based on this iterative approach. After these steps, the problem has been considered as the multi-criteria decision-making problem since more than one criteria should be considered for evaluating the performances of call centers. The result of the literature review and the meetings with experts show that defining the weights for the criteria is very crucial for evaluating the performances accurately. Collecting human judgment for defining the weights of call center criteria necessitates dealing with vagueness and uncertainty. The intuitionistic fuzzy sets excellent tools for representing uncertainty. Interval valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets can easily represent the human judgments. Thus, in this study, an intuitionistic fuzzy multi-criteria decision making approach is used to design the proposed methodology. Incomplete interval-valued intuitionistic preference relations are used to determine the weights of the indicators aggregating linguistic evaluations of the decision makers.FindingsThe proposed approach provides an objective calculation of performance measurement. In order to provide objectivity, indicator performance functions are proposed for the first time in this study. Nine different functions and related parameters are defined to objectively measure indicator performances.Originality/valueThe paper proposes an objective and easy-to-modify approach for call-center PM, which can be used by call center managers. It presents a new fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method for call center performance evaluation, which can consider the multi-experts' judgments under vagueness and impreciseness, which may be conflicting and incomplete interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy preference relations. Also nine new functions are defined for indicator performance.

Six sigma project prioritization and selection: a multi-criteria decision making approach in healthcare industry

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatma Pakdil ◽  
Pelin Toktaş ◽  
Gülin Feryal Can
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Patient Satisfaction ◽  
Six Sigma ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Multi Criteria Decision Making ◽  
Healthcare Industry ◽  
Healthcare Organizations ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Revenue Enhancement

Purpose The purpose of this study is to develop a methodology in which alternate Six Sigma projects are prioritized and selected using appropriate multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods in healthcare organizations. This study addresses a particular gap in implementing a systematic methodology for Six Sigma project prioritization and selection in the healthcare industry. Design/methodology/approach This study develops a methodology in which alternate Six Sigma projects are prioritized and selected using a modified Kemeny median indicator rank accordance (KEMIRA-M), an MCDM method based on a case study in healthcare organizations. The case study was hypothetically developed in the healthcare industry and presented to demonstrate the proposed framework’s applicability and validity for future decision-makers who will take place in Six Sigma project selection processes. Findings The study reveals that the Six Sigma project prioritized by KEMIRA-M assign the highest ranks to patient satisfaction, revenue enhancement and sigma level benefit criteria, while resource utilization and process cycle time receive the lowest rank. Practical implications The methodology developed in this paper proposes an MCDM-based approach for practitioners to prioritize and select Six Sigma projects in the healthcare industry. The findings regarding patient satisfaction and revenue enhancement mesh with the current trends that dominate and regulate the industry. KEMIRA-M provides flexibility for Six Sigma project selection and uses multiple criteria in two-criteria groups, simultaneously. In this study, a more objective KEMIRA-M method was suggested by implementing two different ranking-based weighting approaches. Originality/value This is the first study that implements KEMIRA-M in Six Sigma project prioritization and selection process in the healthcare industry. To overcome previous KEMIRA-M shortcomings, two ranking based weighting approaches were proposed to form a weighting procedure of KEMIRA-M. As the first implementation of the KEMIRA-M weighting procedure, the criteria weighting procedure of the KEMIRA-M method was developed using two different weighting methods based on ranking. The study provides decision-makers with a methodology that considers both benefit and cost type criteria for alternates and gives importance to experts’ rankings related to criteria and the performance values of alternates for criteria.

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