A distance consensus method to aggregate viewpoints of different stakeholders for design alternative selection

Abstract

Concept selection methods are commonly used throughout industry to determine which among several alternatives should be further developed. Choosing between different concept design alternatives is a complex task because of the presence of multiple conflicting criteria, multiple stakeholders which have diverse viewpoints, and incomplete information. A manufacturer should also pay attention to processes from the viewpoint of relevant criteria such as ease of production, ease of assembly and disassembly, ease of maintenance. Different stakeholders may choose different alternatives where their point of views should be aggregated to obtain the final design alternative. In this paper, a methodology has been developed involving two phases. The first phase of this method uses the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) as a stand-alone methodology to obtain the alternative's final weights from the viewpoint of each individual stakeholder. The second phase aggregates the weights of alternatives from point of view of each individual stakeholder by a distance consensus method (DCM). This method will give the decision makers more relevant information in order to make the final decision. Key words: Design, selection, stakeholders, distance function, aggregation.