A fuzzy TOPSIS with Z-number and alpha-cut in identifying the key factor of smoking behaviours in Jordan

Abstract

The most famous method when dealing with decision making is Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM). One of the easiest technique from MCDM is Fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (FTOPSIS). However, there are some circumstances in FTOPSIS still needs to be enhanced. Therefore, this paper concentrates on: 1) to develop FTOPSIS with Z-number and α-cut based MCDM problem; the combination of Z-Number and α-cut is seen suitable to solve uncertainty issue due to the additional restriction and reliability parts; 2) to validate the propose method for solving smoking problems in Jordan; three decision makers which are parent, student and health organization are requested to answer all the questionnaires based on smoking behaviour problems. The study presents six steps of FTOPSIS with Z-numbers and α-cut to verify the position of the smoking behaviour; 3) to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed method using 10 different number of α-cut. Ten different numbers are 0.1 till 0.9. Results illustrate that many Jordanian smoke because they want to lose their weight. From the study, this proposed method opens a new revolution in MCDM area to provide different ways when dealing with decision making problems. Thus, give us variety of techniques in decision making area.