Implementation of an extended fuzzy VIKOR method based on triangular and trapezoidal fuzzy linguistic variables and alternative deffuzification techniques

Abstract

Many Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problems contain information about the criteria and/or the alternatives that is either unquantifiable or incomplete. Fuzzy set theory has been successfully combined with MCDM methods to deal with imprecision. The fuzzy VIKOR method has been successfully applied in such problems. There are many extensions of this method; some of them utilize triangular fuzzy numbers, while others use trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. In addition, there are many defuzzification techniques available that are used in different variants. The use of each one of these techniques can have a substantial impact on the output of the fuzzy VIKOR method. Hence, we extend the fuzzy VIKOR method in order to allow the use of several defuzzification techniques. In addition, we allow the use of both triangular and trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. In this paper, we also present the implementation of a web-based decision support system that incorporates the fuzzy VIKOR method. Finally, an application of the fuzzy VIKOR method on a facility location problem is presented to highlight the key features of the implemented system.