Ranking of Two Multi Criteria Decision Making Cases with Evidential Reasoning under Uncertainty

Farzaneh Ahmadzadeh
2017 Advances in Science, Technology and Engineering Systems  
Many decision problems have more than one objective that need to be dealt with simultaneously. Moreover, because of the qualitative nature of the most of real world problem it is an inevitable activity and very important to interpret and present the uncertain information for making effective decision. The Evidential Reasoning (ER) approach which is one of the latest development within multi criteria decision making (MCDM) seems to be the best fit to synthesize both qualitative and quantitative
more » ... ata under uncertainty. To support this claim, two case studies were tested to illustrate the application of ER for prioritization and ranking of decision alternative to support decision process even with uncertain information. The overall goal of the first case study is to identify and prioritize factors that can be considered maintenance-related waste within the automotive manufacturing industry. The result after applying ER shows "inadequate resources" and "weather /indoor climate," respectively, are the highest and lowest average scores for creating maintenance-related waste. This prioritization methodology can be used as a tool to create awareness for managers seeking to reduce or eliminate maintenance-related waste. The aim of the second case study is to look at the possibility of having a new approach for sustainable design. So through a literature review six design strategies were taken into consideration in order to develop a new approach based on all advantages (sustainable factors) of the six approaches. For ranking and finding out about the most important factors the evidential reasoning (ER) approach is used. Based on ER all the important factors, apart from the one collected from interviews are a part of eco-design. So it means among all strategies eco-design is the most dominant strategy in term of environment. However two of the important factors are not found in any strategy but in interviews. These factors can be used as the building blocks for a new approach. The importance of having a better structured decision process is essential for the success of any organization, so it can be applied widely in most of real world problem dealing with making effective decision.
doi:10.25046/aj0203134 fatcat:wjlcdwp54bhxdik3gwwllkiwr4