A hybrid Delphi-SWOT paradigm for oil and gas pipeline strategic planning in Caspian Sea basin

The Caspian Sea basin holds large quantities of both oil and natural gas that could help meet the increasing global demand for energy resources. Consequently, the oil and gas potential of the region has attracted the attention of the international oil and gas industry. The key to realizing the energy producing potential of the region is the development of transnational export routes to take oil and gas from the landlocked Caspian Sea basin to world markets. The evaluation and selection of alternative transnational export routes is a complex multi-criteria problem with conflicting objectives. The decision makers (DMs) are required to consider a vast amount of information concerning internal strengths and weaknesses of the alternative routes as well as external opportunities and threats to them. This paper presents a hybrid model that combines strength, weakness, opportunity and threat (SWOT) analysis with the Delphi metho

A fuzzy inference system with application to player selection and team formation in multi-player sports

The success or failure of any team lies in the skills and abilities of the players that comprise the team. The process of player selection and team formation in multi-player sports is a complex multi-criteria problem where the ultimate success is determined by how the collection of individual players forms an effective team. In general, the selection of soccer players and formation of a team are judgments made by the coaches on the basis of the best available information. Very few structured and analytical models have been developed to support coaches in this effort. We propose a two-phase framework for player selection and team formation in soccer. The first phase evaluates the alternative players with a fuzzy ranking method and selects the top performers for inclusion in the team. The second phase evaluates the alternative combinations of the selected players with a Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) and selects the best combinations for team formation. A case study is used to illustrate the performance of the proposed approach

A PROMETHEE-GDSS for oil and gas pipeline planning in the Caspian Sea basin

The demand for oil and natural gas has severely challenged the world supply. The Caspian Sea basin holds large quantities of both oil and natural gas. Pipelines are needed to transport the oil and natural gas from this landlocked region over long distances within countries and across borders to meet this increasing demand. The evaluation of alternative export routes in the Caspian Sea basin is a complex multicriteria problem with conflicting objectives. We present a Group Decision Support System (GDSS) for the evaluation of alternative pipeline routes in this region. The proposed system decomposes the route selection process into manageable steps. The system combines Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat (SWOT) analysis with the Delphi method to capture the decision makers\u27 (DMs\u27) beliefs. A group Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) model is used to integrate these beliefs with subjective judgments and identify the most attractive pipeline route. The Geometrical Analysis for Interactive Assistance (GAIA) plane is used to further analyze the alternative routes and arrive at a group solution consistent with managerial goals and objectives

PROMETHEE: A comprehensive literature review on methodologies and applications

In recent decades, several Multi-Criteria Decision Aid (MCDA) methods have been proposed to help in selecting the best compromise alternatives. In the meantime, the PROMETHEE (Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluations) family of outranking methods and their applications has attracted much attention from academics and practitioners. In this paper, a classification scheme and a comprehensive literature review are presented in order to uncover, classify, and interpret the current research on PROMETHEE methodologies and applications. Based on the scheme, 217 scholarly papers from 100 journals are categorized into application areas and non-application papers. The application areas include the papers on the topics of Environment Management, Hydrology and Water Management, Business and Financial Management, Chemistry, Logistics and Transportation, Manufacturing and Assembly, Energy Management, Social, and Other Topics. The last area covers the papers published in several fields: Medicine, Agriculture, Education, Design, Government and Sports. The scholarly papers are also classified by (1) year of publication, (2) journal of publication, (3) authors' nationality, (4) PROMETHEE as applied with other MCDA methods, and (5) PROMETHEE as applied with GAIA (Geometrical Analysis for Interactive Aid) plane. It is hoped that the paper can meet the needs of researchers and practitioners for easy references of PROMETHEE methodologies and applications, and hence promote the future of PROMETHEE research.MCDA PROMETHEE GAIA Literature review Application areas Outranking

A fuzzy hybrid group decision support system approach for the supplier evaluation process

The quality and delivery performance of a typical company depends largely on the capability of its suppliers. It is therefore important for a company to evaluate the performance of its existing suppliers. However, the problem of supplier evaluation is rather complex when a group of decision makers responsible for these suppliers are geographically dispersed. Evaluating decisions requiring the elicitation of vague and imprecise linguistic information expressed in fuzzy terms. For this purpose, a hybrid fuzzy group decision-making approach for supplier evaluation is proposed, integrating the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (F-AHP) and the fuzzy preference-ranking-organization-method-for-enrichment-of-evaluation (PROMETHEE) group decision support system (F-PROMETHEE GDSS) method. F-AHP is used to determine the weight of multiple criteria while F-PROMETHEE GDSS is applied for the final ranking of suppliers from a group decision viewpoint. The approach advances the supplier evaluation context in two aspects. First, it treats each decision maker uniquely in terms of the preference function and threshold levels. Second, it provides rapid communication between teams through video conferencing. The hybrid approach is used to evaluate the suppliers of a dairy company

A taxonomy and review of the multiple criteria decision-making literature in chemical engineering

Many situations and problems in the chemical and related industries involve complex decision-making demanding discerning abilities and methods. Multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) tools and methods have been widely used to solve chemical engineering (CE) problems that involve conflicting and multiple objectives of diverse types. The main aims of this contribution are to: explain and compare the most common MCDM methods present and classify more than 300 published papers related to the application of MCDM in CE. The various MCDM publications are classified based on the application area, decision context, and journal and year of publication to highlight the trends over the past three decades. This article can serve as a complete state-of-the-art reference for chemical engineers and it highlights the potential applications of MCDM in CE problems