Abstract
Multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) is a supporting tool which is widely spread in different areas of science and industry. Many researchers have confirmed that MCDM methods can be useful for selecting the best solution in many different problems. In this paper, two novel methods are presented and applied on existing decision-making processes in the mining industry. The first method is multiple criteria ranking by alternative trace (MCRAT) and the second is ranking alternatives by perimeter similarity (RAPS). These two novel methods are demonstrated in decision-making problems and compared with the ranking of the same alternatives by other MCDM methods. The mining process often includes drilling and blasting operations as the most common activities for exploitation of raw materials. For optimal blasting design it is important to select the most suitable parameters for the blasting pattern and respect characteristics of the working environment and production conditions. By applying novel methods, how to successfully select the most proper blasting pattern respecting all conditions that must be satisfied for economic aspects and the safety of employees and the environment is presented.
Highlights
The first method uses a trace of a matrix, while the second uses the concept of perimeter similarity to determine the ranking of the alternatives
It is a very interesting fact that Multiple Criteria Ranking by Alternative Trace (MCRAT) and Ranking the Alternatives by Perimeter Similarity (RAPS) have a negative correlation with GRA(T), as with all other methods
Results obtained by the MCRAT method show the best correlation with TOPSIS (0.97), and the worst with VIKOR (0.79), while the RAPS method shows the best correlation with
Summary
A group of multiple criteria (or multicriteria) decision-making (MCDM) methods (sometimes referred to as techniques) is widely considered to be one of the most important and often used support tools for decision-making processes in business and engineering, across a wide area of human interaction with natural and man-made subjects [1,2,3,4]. The methods deal with multiple conflicting evaluation criteria to select a single alternative or rank the alternative solutions to a decision-making problem. Multiple criteria decision making is a well-established, defined and comprehensively studied branch of operations research. The advent of MCDM coincided with the onset of wider usage of operations research tools and methods. While the core ideas exemplified by the multiple criteria methods can be traced back to the 18th century, if not earlier [5], the methods widely used such as ELECTRE (1965) [6], AHP (1977) [7], TOPSIS (1980) [8] and PROMETHEE (1986) [9] were clearly first developed in the latter half of the 20th century as well as numerous others from the same group [10,11,12]
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