Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process Technique Research Articles

Evaluation of the Project Overhead Costs in Iraqi Construction Industry using Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP)

This research investigated the importance and priorities of the project overhead costs in Iraq via a questionnaire using the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process technique (FAHP). Using this technique is very important in the uncertain circumstances as in our country. The researcher reached to frame an equation through the results of the priorities of weights include the percentages of each of the main items of the project overhead costs. The researcher tested this equation by applying it to one of the completed projects and the results showed suitability for the application. The percentages of the (salaries, grants, and incentives) and (fieldwork requirements) in equation represent approximately two-thirds of project overhead costs. So the contractors should deal with the project overhead costs carefully during estimate the bid. 

Applying fuzzy AHP–TOPSIS technique in identifying the content strategy of sustainable manufacturing for food production

Food manufacturing is an important value-adding sector of both local economies and the global economy in terms of job creation, food security and participatory community development, among others. Along with highly relevant issues on energy consumption, unsustainable land-use patterns, waste generation associated with the industry, social issues in terms of health and safety of food products are part of the larger sustainability concerns. While maintaining economic stability at the firm level, there is a need to develop a sustainable manufacturing strategy that addresses competitiveness and sustainability. Emerging concerns for sustainable manufacturing are circulating, but focusing on a particular industry remains a gap. Thus, this paper attempts to formulate a sustainable manufacturing strategy and then to map this strategy to established best practices. The main departure of this work is: (1) identifying the content strategy of sustainable manufacturing strategy for food manufacturing firms, (2) determining the most relevant best practice that would largely address the content strategy and (3) providing guidelines for food manufacturing decision-makers and policy-makers in strategy formulation that aims to enhance the sustainability of their manufacturing firms. A fuzzy analytic hierarchy process–technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (AHP–TOPSIS) approach is used to formulate the strategy and then rank the best practices. A case study is carried out in the Philippines, and results show the content strategy and total quality management is the best practice that supports the sustainability of food manufacturing firms followed by resource and material efficiency approaches.

Prioritizing the solutions of lean implementation in SMEs to overcome its barriers

PurposeThe implementation of lean production in small manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) harbors a great deal of barriers on practical, theoretical, financial and organizational sides. In view of this, the purpose of this paper is to explore and prioritize the solutions to overcome these barriers and pitfalls in order to identify a list of the most feasible and efficient solutions on which SMEs must focus to success their lean journey.Design/methodology/approachFirst, a review of the published articles along with the interview of some lean experts have allowed to identify 20 barriers grouped into five categories along with 17 solutions proposed to overcome these barriers. Afterwards, an integrated fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process-Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (AHP-TOPSIS) was proposed to evaluate and rank the solutions of lean implementation in SMEs and overcome its barriers. The AHP is used to determine weights of the barriers as criteria, and the fuzzy TOPSIS method is used to determine the final ranking of the solutions of lean adoption in SMEs.FindingsThe top five barriers of lean implementation in SMEs were found to be: lack of management involvement, lack of adapted methodology of lean implementation, short-term vision, fear and resistance to change and lack of understanding of lean. Moreover, the top five solutions to overcome the barriers of lean adoption in SMEs are as follows: commitment and participation of management, adoption of simple measurement and KPIs, development of organizational learning culture, early deployment of lean culture through training and allocation of sufficient time and resources for change.Originality/valueThe findings of this study can provide a basis for researchers and practitioners in order to understand the real reasons of lean failure in SMEs and develop improvement plans to increase its success rate. Moreover, it proposes a more reliable, robust and systematic decision support tool for stepwise implementation of the solutions of lean adoption in SMEs since they lack sufficient resources to address all the solutions simultaneously.

Evaluation of Urban Planning Projects Criteria Using Fuzzy AHP Technique

In this research, Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process technique is applied (Fuzzy AHP) which is one of multi-criteria decision making techniques to evaluate the criteria for urban planning projects, the project of developing master plan of Al-Muqdadiyah city to 2035 has been chosen as a case study. The researcher prepared a list of criteria in addition to the authorized departments criteria and previous researches in order to choose optimized master plan according to these criteria. This research aims at employing the foundations of (Fuzzy AHP) technique in evaluating urban planning criteria precisely and flexible. The results of the data analysis to the individuals of the sample who are specialists, in this aspect. The land use criteria are more important than the rest of the criteria in these projects, where it received the relative importance with percentile (42.1 %).

Safety Analysis of different industries using Fuzzy AHP

In recent days, we march towards a new occupational health and safety era in which work cultures are directed towards positive safety values. It is predicted that the safety analysis techniques now in place are quite difficult to address the potential risks which weakens the era. A novel approach of analyzing different crucial criteria in different industrial sectors is analyzed carefully in this paper. In this unique approach, fuzzy AHP(Analytic Hierarchy Process) technique is applied to determine the respective weights of three main criteria and seventeen sub-criteria as a way of enriching the decision making process while in a dilemma. A survey was initiated in different industrial sectors to obtain reliable data for the research. The results shows that the main criteria ‘human safety’ acquired a weight of 72.5% while the respective weights of main criteria machine safety and work environment safety falls to 8.9% and 18.4%. The weight of the main criteria, human safety indicates that the sub-criteria such as eye protection, manual lifting, material handling practices, fire fighting drills, training and safety officers are implemented to a greater extent in most of the surveyed industries.

Integrated environmental management model of air pollution control by hybrid model of DPSIR and FAHP

The aim of this study is to evaluate the obstacles due to a DPSIR model combined with fuzzy analytic hierarchy process technique. Hence, to prioritize the responses regarding the driving forces, pressures, states and impacts, the hierarchy of the model is established. Evaluations and prioritization of model results of urban transport situation in Tehran have provided a number of necessary issues for strategic planning to reduce local air pollution and emission of greenhouse gases by prioritizing their effectiveness in the implementation, including; a) development and improvement of public transport (R1), b) improvement of fuel quality (R2), c) improvement of vehicle emission standards (R3), d) vehicle inspection (R4), f) traffic management (R5). In this study, responses to improve the factors of pressure, stimulus, the current state and the impacts were examined and compared hierarchically. Finally, their priority relative to each other was achieved. Development and improvement of public transport, improvement of the quality of fuel, improvement of vehicle emission standards, vehicle check-up and finally urban traffic management were identified respectively as practical steps to control and reduce air pollution in Tehran.

Determination of the essential activity elements of an asbestos management system in the event of a disaster and their prioritization

Asbestos is now known to be extremely carcinogenic. Nevertheless, there has been a lack of research related to the asbestos management system in the event of a disaster. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine the essential activity elements of asbestos management system and their priorities when disasters occur, in order to respond to the potential for asbestos damage during a disaster. As a starter, it extracted 44 activity elements of asbestos management system against disaster through literature review. It then selected 4 essential elements in rough classification, 11 in intermediate classification and 25 in detailed classification via delphi method, and quantified weighted values of the essential activity elements and their priority by using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process technique. ‘Prevention activity’ in the rough classification, ‘law and system improvement’ in intermediate classification, and ‘related law and legal system improvement’ in the detailed classification took the highest priority in each classification with weighted values standing at 0.63, 0.447 and 0.371, respectively. This is a significant study because it quantified the essential elements in asbestos management system by using delphi method and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process technique when there was no quantified asbestos management system anywhere in the world. The essential activity elements identified in the paper could help decision-makers select an appropriate disaster management system (e.g. supply chain management). Also, each quantified factor could provide a new direction for disaster management, and allow for a comprehensive management plan that considers the issue of asbestos. Finally, the weighted value of essential activity elements determined in this study will be an effective indicator for assessing any asbestos management system.

An Integrated Model for Selection of 3PL Provider using Structural Equation Modelling and Fuzzy AHP

In the current scenario of global operating conditions and competitive environment, it has become highly necessary for organizations to select the best third party logistics provider. Any inaccurate selection of 3PL providers will lead to numerous problems which affect the company's overall performance. This shows that logistics provider selection procedure is a highly essential concern for companies. The selection of the right logistics provider from the growing number of alternatives in the market is complicated. Even though a lot of selection models are available in the literature, in this project, we have made an attempt to arrive at the 3PL provider selection score using Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process. An attempt to develop a new integrated model using Structural Equation Model and Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process technique is made. This project focuses on the factors that influence 3PL provider selection and the model that has been built based on those factors. Also a case study implementing the model has been undertaken. The study also examines the selection criteria and measures the selection score using the developed model.

Demand creating service

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to develop a model not only for determining the key factors in selecting optimal international express suppliers, but also for extracting the priority strategic suggestions of management for international express suppliers.Design/methodology/approach– The proposed model comprises two parts. The first part identifies suitable criteria for evaluating international express supplier by reviewing studies from 1989 to 2009, after which the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is applied to determine the relative weights of the criteria. The second part adopts grey relational analysis to extract five priority managing strategies from which 16 strategies are developed based on three concern factors derived from the first part.Findings– The results show customers’ top three concerns when selecting international express companies. In addition, the results show the five priority strategic suggestions to international express suppliers.Research limitations/implications– The research has two major limitations. First, this study was conducted using a sample of companies operating in Taiwan. Thus, other countries such as Japan and South Korea should be examined in future research. Second, this study focuses on the application of fuzzy AHP techniques to identify key selection criteria and service strategies of international express suppliers. Other important aspects, such as performance evaluation and performance prediction in the selection of international express suppliers, were not involved in this study because of the limited research scope.Originality/value– The proposed model helps international express suppliers enhance their competitiveness and raise their customers’ satisfaction.

A two stage approach for supplier selection problem in multi-item/multi-supplier environment with quantity discounts

Supplier selection, which is the basic process of finding the best supplier/suppliers to procure the items regarding various criteria, is an important decision problem to be studied. It becomes more complicated if there are various items and any supplier cannot provide all types of items individually. Such situations are called multi-item, multi-supplier environments and rarely studied in the literature. In addition, when quantity discounts are also considered, it gets more sophisticated. Although there are several studies dealing with these aspects separately, to the best knowledge of the authors, this study is the first candidate attempting to solve this type of problem with an integrated approach including Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (F-AHP) and Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model.This study mainly operates in two stages. In the first stage, the relative weights of each criterion for each type of item are determined via F-AHP technique. In the second stage, these outputs are used as inputs in the MILP model to determine the suppliers and the quantities to be provided. In order to validate the model, an application is performed in a gear motor company and numerical results of the problem are revealed to select the best suppliers among 6 alternatives, for the procurement of 5 items regarding 4 criteria, namely, price, quality, delivery time performance, and after sales performance, in case of quantity discounts.

Evaluating Tactical Missile Systems by Using Fuzzy AHP and TOPSIS Technique

Evaluating tactical missile systems is a complex system of interacting elements. For example, a good missile system requests good missile performance and minimal cost; the performance and cost depend on improvement of science and technology and economic resources; technology depends on ideas and resources; ideas depend on politics for their acceptance and support; and so on. In such an intricate network of factors, first causes and then final effects cannot be identified easily. These factors directly depend on the expectations of the decision-maker, and on additional complex subfactors, etc. In the complex system, our minds have not yet evolved to the point where we can clearly see these ultimate relationships and readily resolve important issues. Evaluating tactical missile systems is a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. This paper presents an evaluation model based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) in a fuzzy environment where the vagueness and subjectivity are handled with linguistic values parameterized by triangular fuzzy numbers. The AHP is used to analyze the structure of systems evaluating and to determine weights of the criteria, and fuzzy TOPSIS method is used to obtain final ranking.

Prioritization of Sub Watershed Based on Morphometric Characteristics Using Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process and Geographical Information System – A Study of Kallar Watershed, Tamil Nadu

Watershed prioritization has gained importance in natural resources management, especially in the context of watershed management. Delineation of watersheds within a large drainage basin and their prioritization is required for proper planning and management of natural resources for sustainable development. Delineation of potential zones for implementation of conservation measures above the entire watershed at similar occurrence is inaccessible as well as uneconomical; therefore it is a prerequisite to apply viable technique for prioritization of sub watersheds (SW). The present research attempted to study various morphological characteristics and to implement Geographical Information System (GIS) and Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) through Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) techniques for identification of critical sub watersheds situated in transaction zone between mountainous and water scarcity region of kallar watershed, Tamil Nadu. The morphometric characterization was obtained through the measurement of three distinct linear, areal and relief aspects over the eleven sub-watersheds. The morphometric characterization showed vital role in distinguishing the topographical and hydrological behavior of the watershed. Each morphometric parameters were ranked with respect to the value and weightings obtained by deriving the relationships between the morphometric parameters obtained through classification of the SW by associating the strength of Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Processes (FAHP). Based on FAHP approach, sub watersheds were evaluated and divided into five prioritization zones: very less, less, medium, high and very high classes. The FAHP techniques is a practical approach for identification of the sensitive priority zones and is useful for better management practices such as implementation of land and water resource management, conservation and sustainable agricultural development.

Developing location indicators for Agricultural Service Center: a Delphi–TOPSIS–FAHP approach

The main goal of this paper is to construct objectives and attributes of the service centers location problem. This problem is often found within production management as a location problem, when designing for example supply chains or manufacturing layouts. The main contribution of this paper is constructing related location indicators. Since there was no similar literature in this discipline, so a Delphi survey applied to quantify expert’s attitudes about location problem of Agricultural Service Center (ASC) and construct location selection attributes and also ASC objectives. A TOPSIS survey is done to rank extracted attributes to import in fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (AHP) study. Then a fuzzy AHP technique is applied to compute the weight of these most important attributes using four objectives, which obtained by Delphi technique too. In the simplest form with this assumption that all objectives have the same priority, the results illustrated that the service, cost, speed, and ASC profit are first to last important objectives, respectively. At the end of this paper, the multi-choice goal programming method recommended to use when the priorities of objectives are not the same. Finally, the weight of ASC location attributes computed to consider in ASC location problem.

Comparison of Fuzzy AHP and Fuzzy TOPSIS for Road Pavement Maintenance Prioritization: Methodological Exposition and Case Study

For road pavement maintenance and repairs prioritization, a multiattribute approach that compares fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Ideal Situation (TOPSIS) is evaluated. The pavement distress data was collected through empirical condition surveys and rating by pavement experts. In comparison to the crisp AHP, the fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS pairwise comparison techniques are considered to be more suitable for the subjective analysis of the pavement conditions for automated maintenance prioritization. From the case study results, four pavement maintenance objectives were determined as road safety, pavement surface preservation, road operational status and standards, and road aesthetics, with corresponding depreciating significance weights ofW=0.37,0.31,0.22,0.10T. The top three maintenance functions were identified as Thin Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) overlays, resurfacing and slurry seals, which were a result of pavement cracking, potholes, raveling, and patching, while the bottom three were cape seal, micro surfacing, and fog seal. The two methods gave nearly the same prioritization ranking. In general, the fuzzy AHP approach tended to overestimate the maintenance prioritization ranking as compared to the fuzzy TOPSIS.

An application of fuzzy AHP for ranking human resources development indices

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and income indices, which is implemented to rank countries into different items of human development including life expectancy, education, living standards. This paper uses fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to rank five influencing factors including income, culture, healthcare, knowledge and civil rights in Iran. Using a questionnaire in linguistic form, the study asks some experts to make judgment about the relative importance of each pair of five items and it ranks them based on fuzzy AHP technique. The results indicate that income is number priority followed by knowledge, culture, civil rights and healthcare affairs.

Selection of Key Component Vendor from the Aspects of Capability, Productivity, and Reliability

In a technology-driven industry, the appropriate vendors/suppliers can effectively contribute to cobusiness development profits. Key component vendors help dynamically drive solution design firms to achieve strong performances, especially when an integrated circuit (IC) component that has technical know-how specifications dominates an electronic solution design. This paper presents a systematic framework to examine the decision process for the selection of wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) IC vendor alternatives from the business ecosystem aspect in order to review the importance of buyer-supplier synergistic effects. We implement the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process technique which incorporates a vendor’s capability, productivity, and reliability characteristics into a hierarchical structure and deploys decision experts’ judgments along with vague data analysis to solve a real-world problem faced by a leading company specialized in the research and design of wireless networking solutions. The findings indicate the Taiwanese local vendor is the top priority for alternatives selection, and the results contribute significant values to the design firm’s operation management.

A fuzzy AHP model for assessing the condition of metro stations

Service quality, performance, and attractiveness of transit systems are related to the condition of their infrastructures; it is therefore desirable for transit infrastructures to be in the best possible condition and offer an attractive, safe, and friendly environment for travelers. This paper presents a model for rating the condition and performance of transit infrastructures and particularly metro stations; the model is derived based on the opinion of a group of experts (group decision making) and explicitly considers uncertainty. Data from the Athens Metro system are used and a Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process technique is exploited in an effort to capture inherent uncertainties and ambiguities found in expert opinions. Results were compared to those of regular AHP and it was found that based upon the degree of uncertainty, differences in resulting weights could be up to 8%.

PROMETHEE II and fuzzy AHP: an enhanced GIS-based landslide susceptibility mapping

This paper describes the application of a well-known multi-criteria decision-making technique, called preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation (PROMETHEE II), in combination with fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP), as a weighting technique to explore landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM). To this end, eight landslide-related geodata layers of the Minoo Dasht located in the Gorgan province of Iran, involving slope, aspect, distance to river, drainage density, distance to fault, mean annual rainfall, distance to road and lithology have been integrated using the PROMETHEE II enhanced by FAHP technique. Afterward, the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves for the proposed LSM were drawn using an inventory of landslides containing 83 recent and historic landslide points, and the area under curve = 0.752 value was calculated accordingly. Additionally, to further verify the practicality of such susceptibility map, it was also evaluated against the landslide inventory using simple overlay. The outcome was that about 11 % of the occurred landslide points fall into the very high susceptibility class of the LSM, but approximately 52 % of them indeed fall into the high and very high susceptibility zones together. Also, it resulted that no recorded landslide occurred in the zone of very low susceptibility. According to the results of the ROC curves analysis and simple overlay evaluation, the produced map has exhibited good performance.

Selection of best biodiesel blend for IC engines: an integrated approach with FAHP-TOPSIS and FAHP-VIKOR

The aim of this study is to select the best blend using multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique. The six alternative fuel blends diesel, B20, B40, B60, B80 and B100 are prepared by varying the amount of diesel in biodiesel. Brake thermal efficiency (BTE), exhaust gas temperature (EGT), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), smoke, hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) are considered as evaluation criteria. A single cylinder, constant speed, direct injection diesel engine (4.4 kW) was used for exploratory analysis of evaluation criteria at different load conditions. Two models fuzzy analytical hierarchy process-technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (FAHP-TOPSIS) and VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (FAHP-VIKOR, in Serbian) are proposed to evaluate the best blend. Here, the FAHP is used to analyse the structure of best blend selection and to determine the weights of the criteria. The TOPSIS and VIKOR are used to obtain the final ranking of the blend.

Multi-criteria analysis in the strategic environmental assessment of the sugar and alcohol sector

The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the sugar and alcohol sector guides a territorial and sectoral planning that benefits most of the local society and supports this economic activity in all its stages. In this way, the present work aims to determine an index of aggregation of the indicators generated in the baseline of the SEA process, called Index of Sustainability of Expansion of the Sugar and Alcohol Sector (IScana). For this, it was used the normalization of the indicators of each city by the fuzzy logic and attribution of weights by the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Then, the IScana values had been spatialized in the region of 'Grande Dourados'- Mato Grosso do Sul State. The northern portion concentrated the highest values of IScana, 0.48 and 0.55, referring to the cities of Nova Alvorada do Sul and Rio Brilhante, while, in the central portion, the city of Dourados presented the lowest value, 0.10. The selection of the set of indicators forming the IScana, and their relative importance, was satisfactory for the application of fuzzy logic and AHP techniques. The IScana index supplies objective information regarding the diagnosis of the region for the application of SEA.