Group decision via usage of analytic hierarchy process and preference aggregation method (Keputusan berkumpulan menggunakan proses hierarki analisis dan kaedah pengagregatan keutamaan)

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a recognised modern approach to solve decision making problems. Initially introduced by Saaty in 1971 as a tool for handling individual decision making situation, the method has since been extended to incorporate groups. In this paper, a new method for AHP group decision making is proposed. The method integrates AHP with a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)-based preferential aggregation method. It manipulates the preferential weights and ranking aspect of each decision maker in coming up with an optimisation model that determines the best efficiency score of each alternatives. These efficiency scores are then used to rank the alternatives and determine the group decision weights. A comparative analysis of the method with another AHP group decision making method indicates a similar ‘satisfactory index’ level

An Integration of Rank Order Centroid, Modified Analytical Hierarchy Process and 0-1 Integer Programming in Solving A Facility Location Problem

Hadhramout province is the major producer of dates in The Republic of Yemen. Despite producing substantial quantity and quality of dates, the business losses are still high. The situation worsens with the widespread of the black market activities. Recently, the Yemeni government has issued an agreement stating the importance of building a date palm packaging factory as a resolution to the problems. Hence, this study aims to identify the best location for a date palm packaging factory among the seven districts which produce most of the date palm supplies in Hadhramout. The selection was based on eleven criteria identified by several representatives from the farmers and the local councils. These criteria were market growth, proximity to the markets, proximity to the raw materials, labor, labor climate, suppliers, community, transportation cost, environmental factors, production cost, and factory set up cost. The level of importance and the respective weight of each criterion were calculated using two different approaches, namely, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Rank Order Centroid (ROC). In applying AHP, a slight modification was made in the pairwise comparison exercises that eliminated the inconsistency problem faced by the standard AHP pairwise comparison procedure. Likewise, in applying ROC, a normalization technique was proposed to tackle the problem of assigning weights to criteria having the same priority level, which was neither clarified nor available in the standard ROC. Both proposed techniques revealed that suppliers were the most important criterion, while community was regarded to be the least important criterion in deciding the final location for the date palm factory. Combining the criteria weights together with several hard and soft constraints that were required to be satisfied by the location, the final location was determined using three different mathematical models, namely, the ROC combined with 0-1 integer programming model, the AHP combined with 0-1 integer programming model, and the mean of ROC and AHP combined with 0-1 integer programming model. The three models produced the same result; Doean was the best location. The result of this study, if implemented, would hopefully help the Yemeni government in their effort to improve the production as well as the management of the date palm tree in Hadhramout

Measuring performance of virtual learning environment system in higher education

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to measure the performance of commercial virtual learning environment (VLE) systems, which helps the decision makers to select the appropriate system for their institutions. Design/methodology/approach – This paper develops an integrated multiple criteria decision making approach, which combines the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and quality function deployment (QFD), to evaluate and select the best system. The evaluating criteria are derived from the requirements of those who use the system. A case study is provided to demonstrate how the integrated approach works. Findings – The major advantage of the integrated approach is that the evaluating criteria are of interest to the stakeholders. This ensures that the selected system will achieve the requirements and satisfy the stakeholders most. Another advantage is that the approach can guarantee the benchmarking to be consistent and reliable. From the case study, it is proved that the performance of a VLE system being used at the university is the best. Therefore, the university should continue to run the system in order to support and facilitate both teaching and learning. Originality/value – It is believed that there is no study that measures the performance of VLE systems, and thus decision makers may have difficulties in system evaluation and selection for their institutions

Operational Research in Education

Operational Research (OR) techniques have been applied, from the early stages of the discipline, to a wide variety of issues in education. At the government level, these include questions of what resources should be allocated to education as a whole and how these should be divided amongst the individual sectors of education and the institutions within the sectors. Another pertinent issue concerns the efficient operation of institutions, how to measure it, and whether resource allocation can be used to incentivise efficiency savings. Local governments, as well as being concerned with issues of resource allocation, may also need to make decisions regarding, for example, the creation and location of new institutions or closure of existing ones, as well as the day-to-day logistics of getting pupils to schools. Issues of concern for managers within schools and colleges include allocating the budgets, scheduling lessons and the assignment of students to courses. This survey provides an overview of the diverse problems faced by government, managers and consumers of education, and the OR techniques which have typically been applied in an effort to improve operations and provide solutions

Métodos para la comparación de alternativas mediante un Sistema de Ayuda a la Decisión SAD y “Soft Computing"

[SPA] El proceso de resolución de problemas que supone la acción de proyectar está dividido en dos partes esenciales: El problema creativo que plantea la necesidad de buscar soluciones y el problema de evaluación y toma de decisión que plantea la necesidad de escoger de entre todas las soluciones generadas, la óptima o la que mejor satisfaga los objetivos. En muchas situaciones, los seres humanos han de tomar decisiones. Las personas que tienen que asumir la responsabilidad de tomar decisiones difíciles cuyas consecuencias influirán en el proyecto o en la organización a la que pertenecen o dirigen, están sometidas a tensiones profesionales y emocionales. Estas decisiones difíciles se caracterizan por observar intereses contrapuestos, tener elementos de incertidumbre, envolver distintas personas en la decisión o bien poseer elementos difícilmente valorables. Desde que en 1965 Lofti Zadeh introdujera el concepto de lo “fuzzy” permitiendo la pertenencia de un elemento a un conjunto de forma gradual, y no de manera absoluta como establece la teoría conjuntista clásica, es decir, admitiendo pertenencias valoradas en el intervalo [0,1] en lugar de en el conjunto . Las aplicaciones y desarrollos basados en este sencillo concepto han evolucionado de tal modo que, hoy en día, es prácticamente imposible calcular el volumen de negocio que generan en todo el mundo. En este contexto, el objetivo general de la presente investigación es ahondar en el estudio de la evaluación de alternativas en el ámbito de la “Soft Computing” y dado que los métodos clásicos resultan ineficientes para problemas de decisión complejos, sobre todo para aquellos casos en los que nos encontremos con criterios de los que solo disponemos de información cualitativa. En este trabajo se presenta un sistema hibrido que recoge las fortalezas de cada una de las métodos clásicos utilizados. Con este propósito se pretende aportar una herramienta de ámbito general mediante un sistema de ayuda a la decisión (SAD) para la evaluación de alternativas de manera que ayude a modelizar distintos tipos de problemas, como podrían ser la evaluación de alternativas en la selección de personal, en la selección de proyectos, etc. Y en particular como ejemplo de aplicación de la investigación aportada se presenta el desarrollo de un SAD para el modelado del problema del ranking de universidades tomando el ámbito de la Ingeniería Industrial.[ENG] The process of solving problems that making a project supposes is divided into two essential parts: the creative problem which poses the need to find solutions, and the problem of evaluation and decision making which implies the need to choose from all the solutions generated, the optimum option, or that which best satisfies the objectives. In many situations, human beings must make decisions. Those people who must accept the responsibility of taking difficult decisions with consequences that will influence the project or the organization they belong to or manage, are subjected to professional and emotional stresses. These difficult decisions are characterised by observing opposing interests having elements of uncertainty, involving different people in the decision or possessing elements which are difficult to value. Since 1965 when Lofti Zadeh introduced the “fuzzy” concept which permitted an element to belong to a set in a gradual way, and not in an absolute way as classical set theory established, that is to say, admitting belonging valued in the interval [0,1] instead of in the set , the applications and developments based on this simple concept have evolved to such an extent that nowadays, it is practically impossible to calculate the volume of business it generates throughout the world. In this context, the general objective of the present investigation is to go deeper into the study of the evaluation of alternatives in the field of “Soft Computing”, given that the classical methods are inefficient for complex decision problems, above all for those cases in which we find ourselves with criteria about which we only have qualitative information. In this work a hybrid system is presented which gathers together the strengths of each of the classical methods used. With this purpose the intention is to provide a general tool by means of a decision support system (DSS) for the evaluation of alternatives in such a way that it helps to modelize different types of problems, such as the evaluation of alternatives in the selection of personnel, in the selection of projects, etc. In particular, as an example of the application of the investigation carried out, the development of a DSS is presented for the modelling of the problem of ranking universities, using the field of Industrial Engineering.Universidad Politécnica de CartagenaPrograma de doctorado en Tecnologías Industriale