The state of the art development of AHP (1979-2017): A literature review with a social network analysis

Although many papers describe the evolution of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), most adopt a subjective approach. This paper examines the pattern of development of the AHP research field using social network analysis and scientometrics, and identifies its intellectual structure. The objectives are: (i) to trace the pattern of development of AHP research; (ii) to identify the patterns of collaboration among authors; (iii) to identify the most important papers underpinning the development of AHP; and (iv) to discover recent areas of interest. We analyse two types of networks: social networks, that is, co-authorship networks, and cognitive mapping or the network of disciplines affected by AHP. Our analyses are based on 8441 papers published between 1979 and 2017, retrieved from the ISI Web of Science database. To provide a longitudinal perspective on the pattern of evolution of AHP, we analyse these two types of networks during the three periods 1979?1990, 1991?2001 and 2002?2017. We provide some basic statistics on AHP journals and researchers, review the main topics and applications of integrated AHPs and provide direction for future research by highlighting some open questions

The state of the art development of AHP (1979-2017): a literature review with a social network analysis

Although many papers describe the evolution of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), most adopt a subjective approach. This paper examines the pattern of development of the AHP research field using social network analysis and scientometrics, and identifies its intellectual structure. The objectives are: (i) to trace the pattern of development of AHP research; (ii) to identify the patterns of collaboration among authors; (iii) to identify the most important papers underpinning the development of AHP; and (iv) to discover recent areas of interest. We analyse two types of networks: social networks, that is, co-authorship networks, and cognitive mapping or the network of disciplines affected by AHP. Our analyses are based on 8441 papers published between 1979 and 2017, retrieved from the ISI Web of Science database. To provide a longitudinal perspective on the pattern of evolution of AHP, we analyse these two types of networks during the three periods 1979–1990, 1991–2001 and 2002–2017. We provide some basic statistics on AHP journals and researchers, review the main topics and applications of integrated AHPs and provide direction for future research by highlighting some open questions

The Use of AR-IDEA Approach for Supplier Selection Problems

Abstract: To select the best suppliers in the presence of both cardinal and ordinal data and considering weight restrictions, this paper proposes a method, which is based on Assurance RegionImprecise Data Envelopment Analysis (AR-IDEA). A numerical example demonstrates the application of the proposed method

Evaluating the performance of airports using an integrated AHP/DEA-AR technique

Airport efficiency is an area of increasing interest to academics, policy makers and practitioners. This has resulted in a body of literature applying various econometric techniques to compare efficiency between different samples of airports. This paper uses the multi-criteria decision making method Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to incorporate the weightings of input and output variables into Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Assurance Region DEA (DEA-AR) models, with 24 major international airports in the empirical analysis. The paper concludes the discriminatory power in the proposed AHP/DEA-AR model is greater than in the basic DEA model when measuring the efficiency of airports. By applying this approach, policy makers and practitioners can effectively compare operational efficiency between airports, and therefore generate more informed decisions

Techno-economic analysis of solar stills using integrated fuzzy analytical hierarchy process and data envelopment analysis

Desalination using solar stills is an ancient economic method for water desalination. Over the years, research and development in the area of solar still has resulted in increased distillate yield by means of integration of PCM (phase change material), photo-voltaic thermal (PVT), etc with the still. Nano-PCM is an upcoming technology which modifies the thermal performance of PCM. The aim of this research is to analyze the efficiency of 20 solar stills including nano-PCM based solar stills considering various input and output criteria using integrated fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and data envelopment analysis (DEA). The efficiency derived here is relative with regard to the parameters and stills considered in this study. The result infers that, even though the productivity of stepped solar still with sun tracking system was high, but when techno-economic aspects were considered it is not among the top solar stills. The analysis indicated pyramid type solar still, single slope solar still with PVT, solar still with NPCM (paraffin + copper oxide), solar still with NPCM (paraffin + titanium dioxide) and solar still with PCM (paraffin) occupies the top five positions with relative efficiency of 100, 100, 88.47, 88.46 and 76.93% respectively

Construction of index system for external risk factors of disease on large-scale farm based on the analytic hierarchy process

AbstractAnimal health risk analysis technology on large-scale farm is becoming more important, but the assessment of relevant external risk factors of disease spreading into pig farm is an complex multi-dimensional process. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) has been accepted as a robust and flexible multi-criteria decision-making tool for dealing with complex decision problems. On this study, The index system of external risk factors on large-scale farm is built based on AHP. The result shows that farm management practices, Biosecurity and site are major risk factors and reveals AHP can be used in animal risk analysis for disease control and prevention

An integrated Multi-Criteria Decision Making Model for Sustainability Performance Assessment for Insurance Companies

To stay competitive in a business environment, continuous performance evaluation based on the triple bottom line standard of sustainability is necessary. There is a gap in addressing the computational expense caused by increased decision units due to increasing the performance evaluation indices to more accuracy in the evaluation. We successfully addressed these two gaps through (1) using principal component analysis (PCA) to cut the number of evaluation indices, and (2) since PCA itself has the problem of merely using the data distribution without considering the domain-related knowledge, we utilized Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to rank the indices through the expert’s domain-related knowledge. We propose an integrated approach for sustainability performance assessment in qualitative and quantitative perspectives. Fourteen insurance companies were evaluated using eight economic, three environmental, and four social indices. The indices were ranked by expert judgment though an analytical hierarchy process as subjective weighting, and then principal component analysis as objective weighting was used to reduce the number of indices. The obtained principal components were then used as variables in the data envelopment analysis model. So, subjective and objective evaluations were integrated. Finally, for validating the results, Spearman and Kendall’s Tau correlation tests were used. The results show that Dana, Razi, and Dey had the best sustainability performance.This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Assessmen

Integrated Multi-Criteria Decision Making – Data Envelopment Analysis Models In Efficiency Analysis Of Sponsored Research

In the context of higher education administration, specifically for sponsored research, efficiency analysis has become an essential process for both sponsors and researchers. The evaluation process will provide the information on research productivity in fully utilising the resource to produce the desirable outcome. It is easier to evaluate the sponsored research’ performance when its efficiency is represented by a single score. Over the years, many methodologies have contributed into assessing the performance of sponsored research. Among the most popular ones are Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) Method and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). MCDM and DEA method both deal with problems concerning multiple inputs and outputs. This factor is crucial in efficiency analysis as most case studies are presented with more than one resource and outcome. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of sponsored research in a university subject to its data availability and number of Decision Making Units (DMUs). The integrated MCDM-DEA methods are presented in order to fulfill the requirement of the main objective. The first case study presents a novel way of integrating three different MCDM and DEA model to evaluate the performance of a sponsored research from a much simpler form of data in a small size under the same grant. The integrated model has managed to handle the subjective data and objective data in producing the single score for each sponsored research

Measuring organisational performance using a mix of OR methods

Performance measurement has become an increasingly important issue in recent years. In spite of the remarkable progress that has been achieved in this area of research, many performance measurement initiatives fall short of their potential in supporting decision-making. This paper argues that adopting a multi-method approach to assessing performance has the potential to result in more comprehensive and effective performance measurement systems. To support this assertion, the paper discusses the development of a performance measurement system for a Business Tax Department, which combined the use of several operational research (OR) techniques including qualitative system dynamics, data envelopment analysis and multiple criteria decision analysis. The use of these OR techniques was influential in developing and implementing the performance measurement system and has the potential to be transferred to other contexts