COMBINATION OF DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS AND SIMPLE ADDITIVE WEIGHTING METHODS: A NEW METHOD FOR RAPID MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION MAKING

Abstract

Multi-criteria decision making to choose the best option is a complicated task but a required activity in all fields. The problem will be more complicated if, after making a decision, one/several options are added to the list of options to be ranked. In this case, if only a certain multi-criteria decision making method is used, the decision-making shall be required to be started over again. This study recommends a simple solution to overcome this situation. The recommended solution is a combination between the Design Of Experiments method and a certain multi-criteria decision making method. Simple Additive Weighting method was selected in this study as one of the multi-criteria decision making methods for testing. Use the Design Of Experiments method to design an experiment matrix with the main input parameters being the criteria of options. The Simple Additive Weighting method is applied to calculate the output value of each experiment, called the score of the experiment. Develop a mathematical relation between the scores of the experiments and the criteria. This relation is used to recalculate the scores for options to be ranked. Three different cases were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the new method. The results of ranking alternatives by new method have been compared with when using other methods. Sensitivity analysis was also performed in each case. The generation of different scenarios is done using different methods to determine the weights for the criteria. The best alternative determined when using the new method is always similar to when using other methods. In addition, when using the new method, the best alternative is determined regardless of the method of determining the weights for the criteria. The obtained results have proved the accuracy of the methodology and the advantages of the recommended method. Future work is also mentioned in the last part of this article.