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A general fuzzy TOPSIS model in multiple criteria decision making

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Abstract

Decision making is the process of finding the best option among the feasible alternatives. In classical multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods, the ratings and the weights of the criteria are known precisely. Owning to vagueness of the decision data, the crisp data are inadequate for real-life situations. Since human judgments including preferences are often vague and cannot be expressed by exact numerical values, the application of fuzzy concepts in decision making is deemed to be relevant. In this paper, we proposed the application of a fuzzy distance formula in order to compute a crisp value for the standard deviation of fuzzy data. Then, we use this crisp value of the standard deviation to normalize the fuzzy data using the distance formula again. In our normalization approach, we have enough flexibility to consider various types of fuzzy numbers (such as triangular, trapezoidal, and interval). Finally, we use the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution to determine the ranking order of the alternatives. A numerical example from the literature is solved to demonstrate this applicability of the proposed model. We also compare our proposed approach with similar methods in the literature using some examples with known results and a number of randomly generated test problems. The results point to the applicability of our method and signify its effectiveness in identifying solutions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Engineering, College of Technology, Mazandaran University of Science & Technology, P.O. Box 734, Babol, Iran

    Iraj Mahdavi

  2. Department of Industrial Engineering, Payame noor University, Sari, Iran

    Armaghan Heidarzade

  3. Department of Statistics, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran

    Bahram Sadeghpour-Gildeh

  4. Faculty of Mathematical Sciences, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

    Nezam Mahdavi-Amiri

Authors
  1. Iraj Mahdavi
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  2. Armaghan Heidarzade
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  3. Bahram Sadeghpour-Gildeh
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  4. Nezam Mahdavi-Amiri
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Correspondence to Iraj Mahdavi.

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Mahdavi, I., Heidarzade, A., Sadeghpour-Gildeh, B. et al. A general fuzzy TOPSIS model in multiple criteria decision making. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 45, 406–420 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-009-1971-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-009-1971-5

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