A New Fuzzy Multi-criteria Decision Making Approach: Extended Hierarchical Fuzzy Axiomatic Design Approach with Risk Factors

Abstract

In recent years, Axiomatic Design (AD) has been widely used as a multi criteria decision making approach. AD approach compares the design objects and system capabilities in a framework and then selects the best alternative based on these comparisons. Some researchers then include fuzziness in the AD approach which helps to evaluate alternatives in fuzzy environments. The main advantage of fuzzy AD approach is the ability to evaluate both crisp and fuzzy values at the same time during decision process. However, these approaches are not appropriate for hierarchical decision problems. Therefore, these are extended to solve the hierarchical decision problems and Hierarchical Fuzzy Axiomatic Design Approach (HFAD) is presented. In this study, HFAD is extended to include risk factors for the first time in literature and a new approach called RFAD is proposed. Moreover, the application of the new approach is shown on a real world supplier selection problem and the results are compared to the other widely used decision making approaches in literature. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.