The Study of How to Improve the Consistency of the AHP and ANP Methods

Abstract

AHP and ANP are commonly utilized researchers to deal with the issues of multiple criteria decision making. And they are the popular methods on group decision making. However, researchers must pay attention to the consistency of the questionnaires. In recent years, many studies have proposed some methods for improvement, most of which emphasize the improvement of calculation methods. However, the majority of researchers using AHP and ANP methods still prefer traditional questionnaires. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to find methods for improving the consistency of traditional questionnaires. This study proposes two methods of implementation. The first one is to allow for on-site explanation by respondents of questionnaires; the second one is for questionnaires to add fill-in-the-blank questions to permit additional information to be given. This study performs tests based on the results of four groups of experimental objects, which shows, if the fill-in-the-blank questions are added into questionnaires, the consistency of questionnaires is significantly improved. This study provides researchers using the AHP and ANP methods a good methodology for improving the consistency of the questionnaires.