The methodology of solving stochastic multiple criteria ranking problems applied in transportation

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the methodology of solving complex multiple criteria problems with the presence of non-deterministic information. The author proposes a universal approach of ranking variants applied to solve decision problem in transportation. Since the nature of transportation process is stochastic, the evaluation criteria are expressed by non-deterministic values. Moreover, the preferential information is usually contradictory, with some level of uncertainty. As a result, the proposed methodology is composed of two phases, including: (1) the selection of the most suitable deterministic multiple criteria decision aiding (MCDA) method to decision problem and decision maker’s (DM’s) preferences expressed during the modelling process; (2) its application using non-deterministic information, i.e. transformation of non-deterministic information into deterministic values, computation of relations between variants resulting in many deterministic rankings, calculation of non-deterministic relations between variants, and construction of final ranking. The proposed methodology is verified on the exemplary decision problem in transportation. The application of the procedure increases the credibility of the final decision, giving an opportunity to use deterministic MCDA method in the stochastic transportation process.