Generalised hybrid fuzzy multi criteria decision making based on intuitive multiple centroid defuzzification

Abstract

The concept of fuzzy multi criteria decision making process has received significant attention from research community due to its successful applications for human based decision making problems under fuzzy environment. It complements the decision makers to evaluate their subjective judgements under situations that are vague, imprecise, random and uncertain in nature. Inspired by such real applications, in this research study, the theoretical foundation of a hybrid fuzzy multi criteria decision making model based on new centroid defuzzification method is proposed. The proposed model tackles some issues that may be associated with the selection problems of the multi criteria decision making such as deriving decision criteria important weights, ranking various alternatives, suitable combination of fuzzy multi criteria decision making techniques and proper defuzzification method used. In developing the hybrid model, two multi criteria decision making techniques are integrated which are; 1) consistent fuzzy preference relations and; 2) fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution. It is also incorporated together with new defuzzification method namely intuitive multiple centroid. In the view of evidence outlined in this study, the proposed model serves as a generic multi criteria decision making procedure, particularly when fuzzy sets are involved in the decision process. The two major contributions from this study are that: 1) The intuitive multiple centroid defuzzification capable to cater all possible representations of fuzzy sets reasonably and consistent with human intuition or judgment. 2) The generalised hybrid fuzzy multiple decision making model using intuitive multiple centroid gives better computation to evaluate criteria and alternatives in decision making problems under different uncertain environment. Furthermore, an empirical validation of the proposed model is investigated through conducting a case study of staff recruitment in MESSRS SAPRUDIN, IDRIS & CO, Malaysia. In this case study, a group of three decision makers, and four finalist of candidates are selected to take part of this case study. Their involvement achieved the first objective of the case study. At the end of the case study, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to indicate the robustness and the consistency of the results obtained. It is concluded that the proposed model is indeed beneficial under different environment.

Date of Award	Nov 2016
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Portsmouth
Supervisor	Alexander Gegov (Supervisor)