An Extended Fuzzy TODIM Approach for Multiple-Attribute Decision-Making with Dual-Connection Numbers

Abstract

The TODIM is a decision-making method that can examine the psychological behavior of decision-makers (DMs). However, the traditional TODIM method has still not been having the ability to overcome fuzzy information such as interval values and linguistic variables. This paper proposes an extended TODIM decision-making model for multiple-attribute decision-making (MADM) problems in a linguistic environment using dual-connection numbers (DCNs). The extended model uses linguistic variables in which the values of alternatives and criteria for both of them are formatted in the triangular fuzzy numbers (TFNs) to express the uncertain information. First, some definitions and basic operators of the TFNs and DCNs are introduced. Then, the way how to convert fuzzy information in forms of the TFNs into DCNs and the step how to transform each criterion weight value into a crisp value using the defuzzification of Minkowski are demonstrated. Furthermore, the traditional TODIM is improved to address MADM problems with DCNs, and detailed calculation steps in determining decisions are explained. Finally, an illustrative example which is a cadre selection problem is applied to demonstrate the conformity and validity of the extended TODIM method and to compare it with some other methods.