Multicriteria analysis with fuzzy pairwise comparison

The analytic hierarchy process (AHP is a popular method for solving multicriteria analysis (MA) problems involving qualitative data. However, this method is often criticized due to its use of an unbalanced scale of judgements and its inability to adequately handle the inherent uncertainty and imprecision of the pairwise comparison process. This paper presents a fuzzy approach for tackling qualitative MA problems in a simple and straightforward manner. As a result, effective decisions can be made based on adequate modeling of the uncertainty and imprecision in human behavior. An empirical study of a tender selection problem at Monash municipal government of Victoria in Australia is conducted. The result shows that the approach developed is simple and comprehensible in concept, efficient in computation, and robust in modeling human evaluation processes which make it of general use for solving practical qualitative MA problems. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.