Title: Practical common weights compromise solution approach for technology selection

Authors: R. Kiani Mavi, A. Makui, S. Fazli, A. Alinezhad

Addresses: Department of Industrial Management, Islamic Azad University (IAU), Science and Research Branch, Punak, Ashrafi Isfahani Highway, Tehran 14778-93855, Iran. ' Department of Industrial Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Narmak, Farjam Street, Tehran 16846-13114, Iran. ' Department of Industrial Management, Imam Khomeini International University (IKIU), Noruzian Street, Qazvin 34149-16818, Iran. ' Department of Industrial Engineering, Islamic Azad University (IAU), Qazvin Branch, Nokhbegan Street, Qazvin 34185-1416, Iran

Abstract: Industrial managers are often faced with the dilemma of selecting a single most appropriate technology from a range of competing options. The rapid development of technologies, together with their increasing complexity and variety, has made the task of technology selection difficult. Technology selection and justification involve decision-makings that are critical to the profitability and growth of a company in the increasing competitive global scenario. In many cases, the selection processes are based on generic decision support tools which are not fully adapted for technology selection. In this paper, a practical common weight compromise solution methodology with an improved discriminating power is introduced for selecting the best technology. Robustness and discriminating power of this method in robot evaluation problem is justified. High Spearman|s rank correlation between the ranks obtained by this approach and previous approaches justifies the robustness of the approach.

Keywords: technology selection; MCDM; multi-criteria decision making; compromise solution; weight restriction; common performance attribute weights; appropriate technologies; technology justification; robot evaluation; robot selection.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPM.2010.030736

International Journal of Procurement Management, 2010 Vol.3 No.2, pp.214 - 230

Published online: 01 Jan 2010 *

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