An interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy DEMATEL method combined with Choquet integral for sustainable solid waste management

Disclosure: N.B. Trivedi: None. J. Amin: None. M. Patel: None. S. Patel: None. P. Rana: None. A. Rajani: None. V. Dave: None. Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is a complex hormonal disorder having multifactorial origins. This study aims to apply Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methods like Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to prioritize factors influencing PCOS. In our study, 10 criteria impacting PCOS were identified through extensive literature review. AHP and DEMATEL were used via matrices, assessed by 13 experts. AHP determined relative importance/weights while DEMATEL assessed interconnectedness among criteria. AHP revealed that family history held the highest weight (0.22) while Insulin resistance held the lowest weight at 0.04. The results obtained from DEMATEL indicated that factors like obesity, insulin resistance, diet, psychological stress and sedentary lifestyle displayed higher D+R values, suggesting a strong influence on other factors; indicating their significant impact on the syndrome. The division of criteria into cause and effect groups based on D-R values revealed that family history, environmental factors, diet, sedentary lifestyle and psychological stress appear to be causative and sleep disturbances, low-grade inflammation, excess androgen and insulin resistance seem to be the consequences of PCOS. In AHP the criteria are treated as being independent to each other and their hierarchal order is determined. However, in realistic scenarios factors may have some sort of interdependency/relationship with one another. To identify that interdependency which AHP fails to focus on, DEMATEL was used. DEMATEL ensues that Insulin resistance along with obesity, sedentary lifestyle, and psychological stress show strong level of influence and interconnectedness, indicating a significant impact on the syndrome. However, insulin resistance, when treated as an independent criterion in AHP, displays lower weightage. In the end, improved PCOD treatment would come from targeted interventions and strategies that centre on the variables with a higher D+R value. When the criteria were considered independent of each other in AHP, highest weight is conferred to family history (despite of it having moderately low level of influence/interconnectedness on other criteria as ensued from DEMATEL) thus prompting more research in the direction of investigating genetic and familial factors associated with PCOS. This could consequently lead to early diagnosis and effective long term management. The combined methodology (DEMATEL+AHP) ensures comprehensive assessment of PCOS factors. Previous studies might have focused on individual factors separately or failed to adequately explore their interrelationships and relative importance. MCDA can be further employed in healthcare to assess conflicting treatment modalities, risk factors etc. for other multifactorial disorders. Presentation: 6/2/2024

The analytic network process (ANP) is a relatively new multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method which can be used to solve supplier selection problem. Because there are different degrees of influence among the criteria, using ANP average method (equal cluster-weighted) to obtain the weighted super-matrix may be inexact. This paper uses an effective solution based on a combined ANP and the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) approach to help food companies that need to select the best food supplier. This paper surveyed the multi-criteria supplier selection approaches, revealing the most popular criteria and sub-criteria, then designed DEMATEL questionnaires and surveyed managers of purchasing departments. According to the managers’ suggestion, an integrated method which combines DEMATEL and ANP could be used to analyze and compute the causal relationships and relative importance weights of the criteria of a system. Finally, a case study was used to demonstrate that the proposed method is more suitable and reasonable than the traditional analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method. Key words: Supplier selection, foods supplier, decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), analytic network process (ANP).

The decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) has been used to solve numerous multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) problems, where real numbers are utilised in defining linguistic variables. Although the DEMATEL has shown its success in solving many decision-making problems, researchers have not fully understood how the DEMATEL works on non-real-number linguistic variables. Recent discovery of single-valued neutrosophic sets (SVNSs) can offer a new method to solve decision-making problems, where three memberships of SVNSs are used to define experts’ linguistic judgment. This paper aims to propose a novel MCDM method, where SVNSs and the DEMATEL are fully utilised. Different from the DEMATEL, which directly utilises real numbers, this proposed method introduces SVNSs to better deal with truth, indeterminacy, and falsity in solving MCDM problem. As an application of the proposed method, subcontractors’ selection problem is investigated using the proposed method, where four types of criteria are developed. A group of experts were invited to provide opinions and linguistic judgment regarding the degree of influence between criteria of subcontractors’ selection. The linguistic evaluations defined in SVNSs were computed using the eight-step procedures of the proposed method. Based on the degree of influence, the computational results successfully segregated all ten criteria into four types, in which two to three criteria are grouped in each type. The results also suggest that “Experience” and “Quality” are the most influential criteria in subcontractors’ selection. The segregation based on degree of influence would be greatly significant for the practical implementation of the subcontractors’ selection.

Introduction: Switched Reluctance Motors (SRMs) are gaining prominence in electric vehicles (EVs) due to their simplicity, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. However, challenges such as torque ripple, efficiency optimization, and design complexities limit their performance. Addressing these challenges requires a systematic approach to evaluate and optimize critical factors influencing SRM design and operation. This study applies a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework using the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method to enhance SRM performance. By analyzing interdependencies among 13 critical criteria, the approach identifies key factors such as efficiency and torque ripple that significantly impact motor performance and cost-effectiveness. The findings provide actionable insights for optimizing SRM design, contributing to the advancement of EV technologies and supporting sustainable transportation goals. Objective: To enhance the performance of switched reluctance motors (SRMs) in electric vehicles (EVs) using multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) analysis with the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method. Methods: A 13 × 13 criteria matrix assessed the interrelationships between critical factors influencing SRM design and operation. The DEMATEL method established interdependencies among the criteria and developed a cause-and-effect relationship model. Results: Efficiency and torque ripple were identified as the most influential criteria, significantly impacting the reliability and cost-effectiveness of SRM technology. The analysis offered insights into optimizing SRM design by emphasizing key drivers. Conclusions: Integrating DEMATEL into the MCDM framework effectively addresses complex interrelated challenges in motor design and operation. This structured data-driven method advances decision-making for EV technologies and tackles critical challenges for sustainable transportation.

Rural park and recreation agencies introduce facilitation strategies to mitigate rural park visitation leisure constraints. Using Taiwanese population as sample, this article used leisure constraints concept and Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method to help agencies to prioritize facilitation strategies. DEMATEL analysis showed that constraints overlap in the consumer's mind. Impact of constraints vs sum of rows r map informs agencies which constraints should be given the priority to mitigate. DEMATEL influence map shows how facilitation strategies that allay priority constraints impact other constraints. Although this method is applied for rural park visitation, it is context neutral and can be applied to other leisure activities.

Modelling the barriers to sustainable waste management in the plastic-manufacturing industry: An emerging economy perspective

Decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) is considered as an effective method for the identification of cause-effect chain components of a complex system. It deals with evaluating interdependent relationships among factors and finding the critical ones through a visual structural model. Over the recent decade, a large number of studies have been done on the application of DEMATEL and many different variants have been put forward in the literature. The objective of this study is to review systematically the methodologies and applications of the DEMATEL technique. We reviewed a total of 346 papers published from 2006 to 2016 in the international journals. According to the approaches used, these publications are grouped into five categories: classical DEMATEL, fuzzy DEMATEL, grey DEMATEL, analytical network process- (ANP-) DEMATEL, and other DEMATEL. All papers with respect to each category are summarized and analyzed, pointing out their implementing procedures, real applications, and crucial findings. This systematic and comprehensive review holds valuable insights for researchers and practitioners into using the DEMATEL in terms of indicating current research trends and potential directions for further research.

Decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) is considered as an effective method for the identification of cause-effect chain components of a complex system. It deals with evaluating interdependent relationships among factors and finding the critical ones through a visual structural model. Over the recent decade, a large number of studies have been done on the application of DEMATEL and many different variants have been put forward in the literature. The objective of this study is to review systematically the methodologies and applications of the DEMATEL technique. We reviewed a total of 346 papers published from 2006 to 2016 in the international journals. According to the approaches used, these publications are grouped into five categories: classical DEMATEL, fuzzy DEMATEL, grey DEMATEL, analytical network process- (ANP-) DEMATEL, and other DEMATEL. All papers with respect to each category are summarized and analyzed, pointing out their implementing procedures, real applications, and crucial findings. This systematic and comprehensive review holds valuable insights for researchers and practitioners into using the DEMATEL in terms of indicating current research trends and potential directions for further research.

While many studies have discussed the purchase behavior for e-shopping stores, there is little study focusing on mechanism which consumers accurately and reasonably identify the similarities of e-shopping stores. Therefore, we introduce the approach which combines DEMATEL with ANP to modify multidimensional scaling to address this concern. In traditional MDS, the average summation is combined with the proximity matrices of the objects for each criterion (perceived price of stores), which may neglect the interdependence and feedback relationships between the criteria. The weights and relationships of different criteria are treated as equal and independent to obtain similarities that are often counterintuitive because the human mind has a much more complex judgment system that is able to account for different weighting. To address these problems, we propose an approach that combines DEMATEL with ANP. An empirical study is used to compare our approach with traditional MDS. Key words: Multidimensional scaling (MDS), Analytic network process (ANP), Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), multiple criteria decision making (MCDM), Purchase intention, online shopping.

PurposeChina is a critical factor for constructing an all-round well-off society. Infrastructure construction, especially high-grade highways, in the western area is an essential component of the strategy for large-scale development of west China. It is crucial to evaluate investment projects for high-grade highways and select the best one. Testing investment projects and selecting the best one can be recognized as a multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. In this process, decision-makers (DMs) usually face with uncertain information because of complicated decision environment or their limited knowledge.Design/methodology/approachA new Evaluation based on the Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) for PFS based on the DEMATEL is proposed: The authors offer a new score function and prove some properties for the score function. They put forward a novel Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method for PFS to analyze the relations of criteria and get criteria weights. Considering the bounded rationality of DM, the authors propose a new EDAS method for PFS based on prospect theory. They apply their proposed approach to a western city's actual case in selecting a suitable project for building a high-grade highway.FindingsBy comparison, the authors can observe that our method has some traits: (1) considering bounded rationality of DM; (2) fewer computation; (3) having the ability to obtain the relation of criteria and finding the critical factor in the decision system.Originality/valueIn this paper, the authors propose a new EDAS method for PFS based on the DEMATEL technique. They transform PFS into crisp numbers by their proposed new score function for PFN to make the decision process more convenient. Then, the authors use the DEMATEL method to obtain the relationship between criteria and criteria weights. Furthermore, they propose a new EDAS method for PFS based on DEMATEL to reduce the computational complexity. Finally, they apply our method to a real case and compare our method with two traditional methods.

The architectural design service, a knowledge intensive industry, expands rapidly in China. Upgrading the service level becomes an important issue for managers and the assessment of architectural design services is a multiple-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem. Many traditional MCDM methods are based on the additive concept along with the independence assumption, but criteria may be dependent in some situations. The Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) can be used as a wise method to handle the inner dependences within a set of criteria. In this paper, DEMATEL approach is proposed to assess architectural design services more effectively. In addition, a case study is presented to make this approach more understandable for managers.

The recent boom of decision-making under uncertain information has attracted many researchers to the field of integrating various types of sets with decision-making methods. In this paper, a combined decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) with single-valued neutrosophic sets is proposed to solve the decision problem. This new model combines the advantages of multiplicative inverse of decision matrix in DEMATEL and neutrosophic numbers in linguistic variables, which can find the interrelationship among factors of decision problem. Differently from the typical multiplicative inverse of DEMATEL, which directly used inverse of matrix using real numbers, this method introduces the concept of inverse of matrix using the proposed left–right neutrosophic numbers. This step will enhance the validity of multiplicative inverse of decision matrix in the DEMATEL with neutrosophic numbers. The proposed neutrosophic DEMATEL is also be compared with the DEMATEL and fuzzy DEMATEL. This paper includes a case study that demonstrates the applicability of the neutrosophic DEMATEL in establishing the relationship among influential factors of coastal erosion. Extensive empirical studies using 12 factors of coastal erosion were presented to study the benefits of the proposed method. The result unveils the cause-and-effect relationships among the factors, where seven factors are identified as cause factors and five factors are grouped as effect factors. It is discovered that the factor ‘imbalance sediment supply’ gives a significant influence to coastal erosion. It is also shown that the degree of importance of the factors is almost consistent with the other two methods despite differences in type of numbers used in defining linguistic variables.

PurposeThe Healthcare sector is one of the important sectors of the Service Industry. It is believed that in this sector, the customer server relationship is very critical, and even the slightest gap in the people quality may have a huge impact on the delivered service quality. Some of these enablers are doctors, nursing staff and support staff. Furthermore, the nonpeople quality enablers such as diagnostic services, facilities, hygiene levels and so on are also likely to impact the delivered service quality. It was also felt that the degree of impact each enabler has on the service quality could vary. Therefore there is a need for structured and deep analysis. The paper attempts to identify, analyze and prioritize the enablers that impact the delivered service quality.Design/methodology/approachThe enablers have been identified through literature review and inputs from experts in the healthcare fraternity. The authors have explored different decision-making tools such as analytic hierarchy process (AHP), analytic network process (ANP), stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis, Hybrid Model and DEMATEL (Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) for the analysis of data in this paper. Based on the strengths of the approach and careful considerations by focus group discussions, DEMATEL was chosen as the best option. It is simple, unique, sparingly used in the healthcare sector, effective in prioritizing and gives meaningful insights on importance, cause and effect factors. DEMATEL approach converts the complex problem with interrelated factors into a clear structure that makes simple interrelationships among factors in the form of cause and effects digraph, and hence, the authors chose to use it. A case study in one of the hospitals has also been conducted to demonstrate the applicability of the developed index. The case study very strongly validates the developed index.FindingsThis research paper has found that there are people quality enablers such as the doctor, nursing staff, support staff and nonpeople quality enablers such as facilities, diagnostic services and hygiene levels maintenance, which impact the delivered service quality. It also concludes that the delivered service quality depends not only on the quality but also on the availability of these enablers. The inputs received from the experts have been run through the DEMATEL methodology and importance computed for each. The top five priority enablers are Quality of Doctor, Availability of Doctor, Quality of Support Staff, Quality of Nursing Staff and Availability of Support Staff.Research limitations/implicationsThe weights of the enablers have been obtained using the DEMATEL tool. These weights have been calculated using the inputs from 22 experts, which meets the statistical requirement (Skulmoski, 2007). However, a larger group of experts can be reached, and based on the inputs received from them, the tool can be revalidated for repeatability and reproducibility. Using Fuzzy DEMATEL can also be explored for further analysis.Practical implicationsThe proposed framework to assess the service quality level of a healthcare organization is based on a sound approach of DEMATEL. The service index arrived, thereafter, can be used to rate the delivered service quality by any healthcare organization. It can be used to compare the similar type of healthcare organizations across locations. This Index can facilitate improvements in the healthcare organization through internal and external benchmarking. It also helps the organization to know the gaps, understand the root cause, improve upon them and become the best in class. This Index uses the inputs from the end customers to calculate the rating, which makes it more reliable and accurate. The overall scores obtained from the Index can provide the ranking to the healthcare providing organizations and options to customers to choose from best. The service quality index can be used by an organization to continuously monitor their delivered service quality scores and improve them to become the best in class. The research paper highlights the significant role played by the people quality and its strong impact/contribution on the delivered service quality. Hence, it is believed that it will encourage the healthcare organizations to prioritize the improvement and upgrade of the people quality over the nonpeople quality aspect.Originality/valuePutting people and nonpeople quality enablers in one single model and assigning weights to them using the DEMATEL approach is a new application in healthcare. Developing an Index to measure the delivered service quality in the healthcare sector is also different and new.

In this paper, for evaluating and comparing the heterogeneous balance-variation order pair of any two decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) theories, in which one has larger balance and smaller variation, and on the contrary, the other one has smaller balance and larger variation, the first author proposed a useful integrated validity index to evaluate any DEMATEL theory by combining Liu's balanced coefficient and Liu's variation coefficient .Using this new validity index, three kinds of DEMATELs with a same direct relational matrix, including the traditional DEMATEL, shrinkage DEMATEL and balance DEMATEL, are compared, a simple validity experiment is conducted, the results show that the balance DEMATEL has the best performance, the performance of the shrinkage coefficient is better than that of the traditional DEMATEL.

Revised DEMATEL: Resolving the Infeasibility of DEMATEL