Abstract
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.
Highlights
Academic Editor: Parimala Mani e 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
To bridge these research gaps, this paper aims to propose an integration of single-valued neutrosophic sets (SVNSs) and the DEMATEL (SVN-DEMATEL), where linguistic variables defined in SVNS are merged into the DEMATEL procedures. e integration of DEMATEL and SVNS ensued when linguistic variables used are defined in three independent memberships of SVNS
An extended neutrosophic set is integrated with a decision-making method to gain better understanding about the use of neutrosophic sets in decision-making. e SVNS was proposed to substitute the neutrosophic sets due to its complexity in computations, in real scientific and engineering case applications. e SVNS has no direct integration with causal analysis decision-making methods such as DEMATEL despite the advantages of its three memberships in dealing with indeterminacy information
Summary
Academic Editor: Parimala Mani e 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. 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. Using the DEMATEL, all evaluation criteria are partitioned into two groups, in which the first group is known as cause group and the second group is called as effect group Owing to these positive features, the DEMATEL has been successfully applied in many recent decision-making problems (see [4,5,6,7]). It can be seen that all these related researches have discussed the theoretical decision analyses or pattern recognition methods such as similarity measures, entropy, accuracy functions, aggregation operators, and distance measures without really applying to a real case data or experiment. The extent of integration between specific type of neutrosophic sets and DEMATEL is yet to be fully understood. e following section provides a brief of latest research that elucidates the merging of neutrosophic sets and DEMATEL. ese reviews would provide an insight into the research gap between the recently published works and the proposed work
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