Fuzzy Multiple Attribute Decision Making : Methods and Applications

This monograph is intended for a graduate course of engineering and management science, as well as for persons who want an introductory and a capsule look into the theories and methodologies of multiple attribute decision making under a fuzzy environment. Moving from classical MADM introduces a great deal of complexity to the decision analysis. In a fuzzy environment, the decision analysis is extended to not only consider the aggregation of performance scores (which are fuzzy) but also the comparison of fuzzy numbers which cannot be easily compared as in the case of real numbers. Chapter II gives an overview of the classical MADM. Chapter III presents the basic concepts and the mathematical operations of fuzzy set theory with figures and simple numerical examples in a easy-to-read and easy-to-follow manner. Chapter IV deals with the fuzzy ranking methods. Fuzzy ranking methods are widely used in many aspects of fuzzy applications (especially fuzzy optimization procedure). A systematic classification of nearly two dozens of existing ranking methods is presented. In chapter IV, a system for classifying over one dozen fuzzy MADM methods is presented. The concept, algorithm, and the characteristics of each method are discussed. The computational procedure of each method is illustrated by solving a simple numerical example