Analytic Network Process Methodology Research Articles

Food Waste and Environmental Sustainability of the Hotel Industry in Taiwan

There is an alarming surge in food wastage stemming from culinary practices and intricate cuisines despite technological advancements. The reduction in food wastage is a pivotal sustainable development goal, yet statistics indicate high levels of wastage. Scholars have investigated food waste extensively with a focus on the hospitality sector, which accounts for nearly 12% of total waste. Factors contributing to food waste have been examined, yet findings tend to be isolated and lack a holistic approach. Existing research leans heavily toward developed countries despite the issue being more pronounced in developing economies. Investigations into hotel-related food wastage in Taiwan remain scarce. Effective waste management can curtail expenditures and enhance brand reputation and underscore a commitment to environmental sustainability for hoteliers and culinary managers. This study offers actionable insights to guide sustainable development. The current research employs qualitative interviews and structured questionnaires with culinary experts and hotel management to decode intricacies of food wastage across procurement, inventory, and preparation in Taiwanese hotels. Utilizing the Analytic Network Process methodology, the research provides insights to guide hoteliers in achieving sustainable development goals.

Analyzing the Effects of Covid-19 on Food Supply Chains: A Case Study on Ranking the Obstacles with ANP Methodology

Coronavirus pandemic has severely affected the supply chain network of many industries. Various activities have been disrupted throughout supply chains due to the increasing number of patients, death rate growth, quarantine regulations, social distancing, closed borders, and the phenomenal decrease in travel rate. Furthermore, the pandemic had dramatic effects on consumers’ behavior all over the world, making them more eager/reluctant to purchase certain industrial products. In this paper, considering the actual supply chain of an Iranian company, the disruptive obstacles that the pandemic can create against properly undertaking activities in a food supply chain, are investigated. The examined obstacles are ranked and prioritized using the Analytical Network Process (ANP) technique. For this purpose, pairwise comparison questionnaires have been designed and completed by 28 managers and supervisors active in the food supply network. The answers are collected and the geometric mean of the matrices and their incompatibility rates are calculated. Based on the obtained results “labor shortage” and “low flexibility” have respectively the highest and lowest priorities among all analyzed obstacles.

Development and prioritization of renewable energy scenarios using SWOT-FANP methodology

The main goal of this paper is to develop and prioritize renewable energy scenarios for electricity production. The model proposed in the paper was applied on the example of the municipality of Strpce, enclave in south Kosovo**. The model consists out of three phases, and the decision-making and planning process involves a group of decision makers, i.e. selected experts and stakeholders. In the first phase, a group of decision makers, using a collaborative planning method and Homer pro software, defined eight renewable energy scenarios based on renewable energy potentials and electricity demand in Strpce. In the second phase, a group of decision makers, using the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis, defined a total of 22 criteria to evaluate scenarios. Finally, in the third phase, a group of decision makers used fuzzy analytical network process methodology to prioritize scenarios. Results show that a scenario that includes installation of photovoltaic panels in Strpce households to cover 50% of the electricity demand is first ranked. The proposed model has a universal character which means that it can be applied in other municipalities/cities and regions. Also, the model enables collaborative planning through the inclusion of different stakeholders whose number and type can be adjusted according to the subject/area of research.

Decision-Making under Uncertainty: A Heuristics Overview and the Analytic Network Process

The paper provides an overview of known heuristic techniques and different views on decision-making based on heuristics. We discuss heuristics of the “heuristics and biases” program introduced by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, and heuristics of the “fast and frugal heuristics” program developed by Gerd Gigerenzer and colleagues. We propose the idea that heuristics, being a natural instrument of human assessment, may be applied not only for the simplification of the decision process, but also in deliberate strategies without sufficiently reducing the complexity of a problem. In light of this, we give an overview of the Analytic Network Process methodology as a cognitive process. The Analytic Network Process is a descriptive psychophysical process developed by the mathematician, a distinguished University Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Thomas L. Saaty in the 1980s, and it is used for large-scale, multi-criteria decision analysis. It represents the decision problem as a network structure with dependences and feedbacks between included criteria and alternatives. Whether applying heuristics may help to answer questions like “which of the two elements influence more”, pairwise comparisons of considered elements give more accurate answers on “how strong is this influence”. The aim of this article is to draw the attention of psychologists to the interdisciplinary research of the Analytic Network Process that has only been previously studied as a mathematical algorithm, and not as a cognitive process.

An Integrated Approach Based on ANP and Goal Programming to Determine the Best Marketing Strategy

This study aims to build an integrated model to choose the best marketing strategy. The proposed model uses Analytic Network Process (ANP) and Goal Programming. The selection of the best marketing strategy is the process of multiple criteria decision making which involves many criteria and alternatives. Criteria considered in this study include consistent, cost, customer loyalty, trend following, business volume, unique, customer numbers, promotion, branding, business network, outlet location, credibility, manpower and innovation. While alternative marketing strategies include cost leadership, differentiation, focus (segmentation), people and place. ANP methodology is useful to build the interrelationships among criteria and alternatives in marketing strategy selection and to determine the weight of each criterion and alternatives. Goal programming is used to choose the best marketing strategy by considering the constraints and parameters that are suitable for the conditions in SMEs. The application of this model is conducted on one of the largest Batik SMEs in Pamekasan, Madura. The results of the research show that the focus strategy was chosen as the best strategy for Batik Madura SMEs.

Evaluation of software quality-in-use attributes based on analysis network process

Software quality-in-use is difficult to measure because it is based on user’s perception and closely related to corporate management performance. The application service quality indicator (ASQI) software quality-in-use has been developed that can be applied practically with the advantages of using the international standard under development. To measure the software quality-in-use of with ASQI, an accurate analysis of the importance of quality attributes in ASQI is required. In this study, a correlation analysis between quality attributes was first performed for applying analytic network process (ANP) to assess importance. Second, relative weights were derived using analytic network process methodology. Finally, we evaluated the validity of the weights through a case study. This study is the first to analyze the interrelationship among quality-in-use attributes for general purpose software and provides objective weight information in quality measurement. Additionally, the proposed method and procedures provide guidelines for the selective application of quality attributes.

Sustainable infrastructure delivery in Nigeria: implementation of the analytic network process for contractor selection

Purpose: This paper presents research findings that involve the use of analytic network process (ANP) to select contractors for build–operate–transfer (BOT) infrastructure in Nigeria. To deliver sustainable infrastructure (SI), a responsive methodology is required for contractors' selection process, which combines judgement and data for an effective outcomes prediction. Design/methodology/approach: Theoretically grounded on a system theory, sustainable infrastructure delivery (SID) model has been developed in this study. At the deductive phase of the model is the integration of the ANP (a multicriteria decision-making technique) for data synthesis. To obtain decision criteria, 55 sustainability indicators for contractor selection were identified from the literature review. The criteria were first developed to a web-based questionnaire where respondents were requested to rank the importance of the criteria towards selecting contractors that deliver SI, using Likert scale of 1–5 (where “5” is very important and “1” is not important). The results were analysed using factor analysis. Data were further reduced to 16 variables after multicollinearity issues in the data set had been resolved. To weigh the relative importance of the 16 criteria among contractors, ANP methodology was adopted for the second-round questionnaire. The seven-man decision panel that completed the pairwise comparison survey was selected through a purposeful sampling technique. The final survey results were synthesised by Super Decisions (computer package that implements ANP) trial version to rank contractors' options and predict outcomes. Findings/results: Sensitivity analysis of the research findings reveals that the 16 criteria have differential comparative advantages, which requires critical judgement during contractor's pre-evaluation process. Although the overall priorities rank multinational construction corporations (MCC) higher than local construction companies (LCC), MCC are not absolute to deliver SI. LCC are sensitive to some key criteria that are critical to the actualisation SI agenda. Originality/value: This study fills the gap in the knowledge of SID in Nigeria. The study theoretically suggests a framework to harmonise sustainability indicators in contractor selection. The findings further provide feedbacks that can be incorporated to Government's Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) procurement policy to promote SID.

Develop a strategy for improving healthcare logistics performance

ABSTRACTRecently, there has been a great interest in applying logistics and supply chain management practice and strategy in healthcare services. This paper proposes a strategy for improving healthcare logistics performance. Eighteen hospitals located in different countries, namely Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, and Thailand, were interviewed about their national and operational performance. The tool for assessing national healthcare performance, that is, the Health Metric Network framework, developed by the World Health Organization in 2008 was applied to assess the healthcare logistics infrastructure of those countries. Furthermore, we developed set of logistics performance indicators at the operational level. The Analytical Network Process methodology was used to develop the hierarchical measurement for those operational healthcare logistics performances. The results show interdependencies between operational and national performance. The operational performance is affected by the country’s environment. Finally, a strategy for improving healthcare logistics performance is proposed. The interdependences between operational and national performance are discussed.

Evidential Supplier Selection Based on DEMATEL and Game Theory

The supplier selection plays an important role in supplier chain management. How to evaluate the performance of suppliers is still an open issue. Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM), due to its ability of solving multi-source information problem, has become a quite effective tool. Currently, the analytic network process (ANP) and Entropy weight are employed to solved MCDM problems. However, these techniques ignore the one-sidedness of the single weighting method and cannot deal with the uncertainties of input data. In this paper, a new evidential ANP methodology based on game theory is proposed to efficiently address supplier management under uncertain environment. First, ANP and entropy weight are employed to obtain the subjective and objective weights of criteria. Second, based on decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and game theory, the comprehensive weight of ANP and entropy weight can be determined. Game theory is employed to combine the merits of subjective weight and objective weight, and DEMATEL is adopted to adjust the weight of criteria to make the result more reasonable. Finally, evidence theory is adopted to deal with the uncertainties of input data and get the supplier selection result. A case study is given to demonstrate the proposed modeling process. By comparing with the existing methods, we demonstrate that the proposed model has many advantages and it shows the efficiency and rationality in supplier selection problem.

An analytic approach to assessing organizational citizenship behavior

This study examines the organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of employees by designing and developing an analytic network process (ANP) methodology. The viability of the proposed methodology is demonstrated via the sales representatives of Beko, a brand name controlled by Koç Group. We first develop a conceptual framework based on qualitative research methods – in-depth interviews and focus group sessions. We employ the principles of ANP methodology to examine and discover the inter-relationships among the OCBs. This process results in a descriptive model that encapsulates the findings from both qualitative and analytics methods. Necessity, altruism, departmental, compliance, and independence are the underlying dimensions of OCBs found to be the most influential/important. The key novelty of this study resides in designing and developing a prescriptive analytics (i.e. ANP) methodology to evaluate the OCBs, which is rare in the area of organizational behavior (a managerial field of study that have been dominated by traditional statistical methods), and thus serves as a useful contribution/augmentation to the business/managerial research methods, and also extends the reach/coverage of analytics-based decision support systems research and practice into a new direction.

ANALYTIC NETWORK PROCESS DECISION MAKING ALGORITHM

To identify an accurate decision model with a number of distinctive criteria and alternatives are considered to be difficult and complex. In this case, analytic network process (ANP) becomes a significant instrument with a character of accuracy among other complicated models which use a number of criteria with complex feedback interrelation. This paper aims at to present a comprehensive description of multi-criteria decision making techniques with a significant feature of ANP, which is considered as a more robust approach than AHP. The paper offers a brief analysis regarding the ANP methodology in complex multi-criteria decision making, and highlights some recommendations.

Joining or not joining non-industrial private forests into a single management unit: A case-study shaped as an Analytic Network Process

The study aims to find out how the management of non-industrial private forests (NIPF) can be improved by a larger and more consistent participation of all important stakeholders involved in making one of the most important decisions the forest management planning system copes with: whether or not the forest planner shall create a separate forest management unit for NIPFs, considering a wider variety of interconnected benefits, costs risks and opportunities.The decision making process was conceived as an Analytic Network Process (ANP) and all important aspects worth being taken into consideration were embodied in four conceptual subnets that gather benefits, opportunities costs and risks defined from three different perspectives: social, economic and ecological. The method was tested on an important decision which is made each ten years when the forest management plans shall be updated. The input data were collected from two small associations of landowners whose forests are managed by Solca forest district (FD), county of Suceava, Romania. The total forest area supposed to be included in the new management unit is about 360ha and the natural type of forest is beech, mixed with silver fir. Two alternatives were taken into account: the business as usual scenario (the same rotation for all stands and the same silvicultural system, irrespective to the ownership type) and a new management unit, explicitly designed for NIPF, where coppice with standards will produce fuelwood and small size round wood for rural construction.An extensive survey was carried out in order to find out the most important criteria worth being taken into account when such a decision shall be made, as well as the landowners' expectations, concerns and uncertainties with respect to the two options: business as usual scenario and a new FMU respectively. A second survey was distributed among the villagers of a neighboring commune in order to appraise the local demand for fuelwood. Based on the information collected at the first hand four subnets referring to benefits, costs, opportunities and risks have been produced and, within each subnet, three different clusters were defined in order to appraise the relative importance of economic, social, and ecologic aspects. Making pairwise comparisons between alternatives against criteria, clusters, and subnets, we have concluded that a new management unit for NIPFs is feasible and desirable. Even though ANP seems to be a very flexible tool for making complex decisions, any potential user shall be aware of some risks pertaining to ANP methodology, especially the tendency to make too complex networks, compelling to pairwise comparisons that make less sense. On the other hand, the case study presented in this article has demonstrated that pairwise comparisons may refer not only to the relative importance of whatever two criteria or alternatives, but also to the likelihood or desirability of some certain processes that might occur in case of pursuing one of the two alternatives taken into consideration. The procedure we have proposed for making or not making a new FMU can be developed or adapted to other situations where a consistent dialogue between the decision makers and the stakeholders is a more than necessary.

Risk assessment of outsourcing e-procurement services: integrating SWOT analysis with a modified ANP-based fuzzy inference system

With electronic procurement solutions becoming increasingly sophisticated, many firms opt to source these services from third-party providers, effectively transferring (outsourcing) significant responsibility to these services companies. This action, however, entails certain risks, which are oftentimes difficult to assess. To guide managerial practice and to advance academic inquiry in this domain, we identify e-procurement risk factors through a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats analysis, grounded in transaction cost economics (TCE), and propose a risk assessment framework based on the opinions of a group of experts. The approach taken is that of a modified analytic network process methodology, combined with a fuzzy inference system, which is versatile enough to accept the expert opinions in different input formats (such as linguistic variables and ranges). The proposed framework has the capability to aggregate expert judgements’ to estimate risk likelihoods, risk severities and risk factor indices, and derive overall risk magnitudes. The multi-method approach was motivated and is illustrated by a real-life case study of an Indian manufacturing company currently in the process of contract renewal with its existing e-procurement service provider.

A Strategic Planning Methodology for the Multimodal Transportation Systems: A Case Study from Turkey

Transportation costs have an important effect on companies’ competition capability in various sectors. To realize a positive effect, transportation industry should provide some specific performance criteria related with the economical efficiency and service quality. Also an increase in this performance degree depends on the obtaining optimum results of using the logistical resources in a convenient manner by the specialized logistics service providers. In this study, considering the effects of transportation modes on constituting a methodology that is interested in a strategic subject like constructing a transportation network is emphasized. In the process of selecting the most convenient transportation modes, all the required criteria are determined considering the related literature and the opinions of the experts. Then the analytical network process methodology is used to solve this selection problem. The close relationship between the transportation modes that will be used among the points in the network and the points that will be used for short storages and transshipment activities is considered. And the analytical network process is again used to select the most convenient ones among the alternative port locations. After decision making on these two important points, optimizing the freight flow among the supply chain by choosing the right transportation modes at each stage is aimed. To realize that optimization, the aims of decision makers from different levels or from different functional areas are satisfied by using the multilevel programming technique. Finally, the proposed methodology is applied on a transportation project of a logistic service provider, which gives service in a multimodal, multicommodity, multilevel and multiechelon transportation network.

Exploiting the Potential Value of Over-the-Counter Drugs through Brand Equity: An Analytic Network Process Approach

We propose a network model to identify the main drivers of consumer-based brand equity. We apply our research to assess the value of three over-the-counter drug brands. Our aim is to help manufacturers to improve their position in the market of self-medication. This market has very peculiar characteristics: consumers buy products in response to their specific health needs; nonetheless, the market is not strictly regulated in the same way that the prescription market, which allows firms to choose their pricing and communication strategies. Moreover, consumers are not forced by physicians to buy one specific drug, but they can choose the one they prefer. To develop our model we use the Analytic Network Process methodology, which allows integrating qualitative and quantitative judgments from many decision makers and deals with non-regular preference structures. The output of the model is a ranking of the brand value drivers, according to their importance in influencing the consumers' purchase intentions. We find that advertising plays a major role in this setting. To test our model and validate our results, we analyse three Italian brands that produceover-the-counter (OTC) Diclofenac-based drugs. In addition, we compare our results with their market share.

Multicriteria approach for process modelling in strategic environmental management planning

The objective of this paper is to propose a multicriteria methodological approach based on the Analytic Network Process methodology (ANP) in order to examine the scope and feasibility of a process modelling integrated with public participation for environmental assessment. In fact, environmental challenges decisions are often characterized by complexity, irreversibility and uncertainty. Much of the complexity arises from the multiple-use nature of goods and services, difficulty in monetary valuation of ecological services and the involvement of numerous stakeholders. From this point of view multicriteria techniques and process modelling are considered as a promising framework to take into account conflictual, multidimensional, incommensurable and uncertain effects of decisions explicitly. In particular the integration of ANP with tools for public participation and process modelling pose certain methodological challenges, but provide an innovative approach to designing the scope of the environmental assessment and defining and assessing alternatives.

Application of ANP methodology in evaluation of advanced technologies

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a decision tool to help managers make more informed decisions regarding their investments in advanced manufacturing technologies.Design/methodology/approachSelection of a new technology is multidimensional in nature and interdependent relationships exist among various elements of the system. In addition, both quantitative and qualitative factors need to be considered in the evaluation process. The Analytic Network Process (ANP) methodology satisfies these requirements by considering interdependencies among all the factors and by allowing transformation of qualitative judgments into quantitative values for the decision analysis. These capabilities of ANP make it a perfect methodology for use in the development of our decision tool. Once technology alternatives and selection criteria are identified by the decision maker, several pair‐wise comparisons are conducted to determine local priorities for the selection criteria and alternatives. These priorities are then used to determine the overall priorities for the alternatives. The technology alternative with the highest overall priority is chosen for adoption.FindingsAllowing for interdependencies among selection criteria, as well as between alternatives and selection criteria, provides a more realistic evaluation process than other selection processes that ignore such interdependencies.Practical implicationsThe model provides decision makers a tool for evaluating several competitive technology alternatives and selecting the most appropriate technology for adoption.Originality/valueThe paper discusses the inclusion of the subjective judgments of the decision maker in the evaluation process and use of ANP methodology for transforming these judgments into quantitative values for rankings of the alternatives.

Development of a fuzzy ANP based SWOT analysis for the airline industry in Turkey

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis has been widely used to evaluate alternative strategies in order to determine the best one for given business setting. This study aims at providing a quantitative basis to analytically determine the ranking of the factors in SWOT analysis via a conventional multi-criteria decision making method, Analytic Network Process (ANP). The ANP method is preferred in this study because of its capability to model potential dependencies among the SWOT factors. The study presents uniqueness in the way it incorporates inherent vagueness and uncertainty of the human decision making process by means of the fuzzy logic. The proposed SWOT fuzzy ANP methodology was implemented and tested for the Turkish airline industry. The results showed that the SWOT fuzzy ANP is a viable and highly capable methodology that provides invaluable insights for strategic management decisions in the Turkish airline industry, and can also be used as an effective tool for other complex decision making processes.

Erosion and Lifetime Evaluation of Molybdenum Electrode Under High Energy Impulse Current

One of the factors of the functional life of the electrodes used in pulse current discharge depends on the erosion of electrodes. There are many areas that have not been investigated and many areas that require additional study. Some studies have presented results related to the erosion of electrodes made of Cu, Cu–W, Ti, graphite, stainless steel, etc. There is little information available on the erosion of molybdenum electrodes. The erosion of electrodes is related with the electrode material (conductivity, melting point, and density) and the Coulomb charge transferred per impulse. In this paper, molybdenum (Mo) was selected as the main electrode material, considering these factors in addition to high erosion resistance due to high work function and better formability. The performance of pulse discharge devices is mainly characterized by static breakdown voltage, prebreakdown voltage, recovery time, delay time, jitter, and reliability. The degradation of these performance parameters (PPs) is related to many critical factors affecting electrode erosion, consisting of peak current, electrode material, electrode geometry, electrode surface roughness, and gas type. The degree with which the electrode-erosion factors (EEFs) affect the PPs of the pulse discharge device relatively varies and has complex interrelationships, and the relative importance weight of each EEF in order to maximize the life of the pulse discharging device is calculated using quality function deployment and analytic network process methodology. This paper presents experimental work carried out to investigate the erosion characteristics of a molybdenum electrode. Testing was performed at 10–11-kA current discharge every 35 s at a rate of 300 discharges per day with a total of 10 000 shots. The experimental results for Mo electrodes indicate approximately 60 <formula formulatype="inline" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex Notation="TeX">$\mu \hbox{g/C}$</tex></formula> for 5000-C transfers. For 10–11-kA current transfer with Mo electrodes, we can take about <formula formulatype="inline" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex Notation="TeX">$8.5 \times 10^{5}$</tex></formula> shots with wear of 0.3 g without appreciable local wear.

A comparative analysis of the sustainability of rice cultivation technologies using the analytic network process

Sustainability of local farming systems and technologies is a very important issue that faces notorious measurement difficulties. Multi-criteria methods may help researchers to solve empirical problems in the construction of composite sustainability indicators and in ranking agricultural technologies according to their sustainability. This paper shows how a multi-criteria decision-making technique, the Analytic Network Process (ANP), can be fruitfully employed to this end. Contrary to simpler and hierarchical goal-criteria-alternative approaches, in ANP all the elements in the network can be related in any possible way, which means that a network can incorporate feedback and interdependent relationships within and between clusters. We illustrate the use of ANP by ranking three rice cultivation technologies, - that we call unrestricted traditional, agro-environmental and ecological – in the rice fields of the Albufera Natural Park in Valencia (Spain), using economic, environmental and socio-cultural sustainability criteria. Rice is a multifunctional crop in this area, as flooded rice fields act as semi-natural wetlands, with important ecological consequences, mainly connected with the protection of biodiversity. We show that the ANP methodology is perfectly suited to tackling the complex interrelations involved in sustainability evaluation in this case. We find the ecological cultivation system to be the most sustainable technology. The agro-environmental system ranks second, while the unrestricted system is ranked third. Our results also show that if only the economic dimension of sustainability were considered, the order would be reversed, with traditional unrestricted and ecological technologies exchanging places and the agro-environmental system remaining in second place.