Gaining consensus in a moderated group: A model with a twofold feedback mechanism

Abstract

The group Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is an effective tool to collect experts’ wisdom to evaluate complex decision making problems. Because judgments are always diverse in the real world, it is crucial to adequately support the consensus reaching process. In this paper, we develop a convergent group AHP consensus reaching model with a twofold feedback mechanism, which consists of both a judgment and a weighting feedback mechanism. In each round of this dynamic and interactive model, the most incompatible expert is asked to revise her judgment according to the judgment feedback mechanism. If the expert rejects the suggestion, her weight of importance will be adjusted downward based on the compatibility within the group by the weighting feedback mechanism. The proof of convergence of this consensus reaching model with the twofold mechanism is also provided and discussed. Hence this proposed consensus reaching process supports the leader or client in reaching a successful decision with a dispersed group of experts. The proposed consensus reaching model is applied to the brake pad supplier selection problem of Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. The empirical example demonstrates that the proposed methodology provides an operational decision framework for companies to select suitable suppliers in the supplier involvement under the environment of collaborative product development (SICPD) through its successful application in that context