A multi-criteria group decision-making approach for facility location selection using PROMETHEE under a fuzzy environment

Abstract

This paper presents a Z-PROMETHEE with Z-numbers as a new representation of vague information for a facility location selection (FLS) problem. The selection of a facility location, which is a kind of a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem, should be considered from a strategic point of view. In a real-world situation, MCDM problems are generally under uncertainty. In order to overcome such a problem, fuzzy sets can be applied with the PROMETHEE to allow experts to combine inadequate information into the decision method. However, the fuzzy PROMETHEE also has some defects. The main problem is that the certainty of information is not taking into account. For explanation of real-life information, fuzziness and degree of the certainty of information are indispensable. In the proposed method, Z-numbers are used to evaluate the weights of the criteria. Hence, in comparison with the fuzzy model, the PROMETHEE with a Z-number (i.e., Z-PROMETHEE) can symbolize real life problems more realistically.