Selection of new production facilities with the Group Analytic Hierarchy Process Ordering method

This paper presents the Group Analytic Hierarchy Process Ordering (GAHPO) method: a new multi-criteria decision aid (MCDA) method for ordering alternatives in a group decision. The backbone of the method is the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) which is separated into two hierarchies for a cost and a benefit analysis. From these two analyses, a partial ordinal ranking can be deduced, where three relations between alternatives exist: the preference, indifference, and incomparability. A complete cardinal ranking can also be deduced by dividing the score of the benefit analysis by the score of the cost analysis. Another particularity of GAHPO is the incorporation of 'fairness' when assigning weights to the decision makers. GAHPO has been developed to solve a real case: a selection of new production facilities with multiple stakeholders. By applying this method, we found four main advantages: significant reduction of time and effort in the decision process; easiness for the decision makers to arrive at a consensus; enhancement of the decision quality and documentation with justification of the decision made. In using the proposed method both efficiency and equity are achieved in the decision making process. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.