Title: A hierarchical multi-criteria group decision-making method based on TOPSIS and hesitant fuzzy information

Authors: Hossein Gitinavard; Mir Saman Pishvaee; Fatemeh Jalalvand

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran ' School of Industrial Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran ' School of Industrial Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: This study develops a novel approach based on the technique for order performance with similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), to solve the multi-criteria group decision-making problem using hesitant fuzzy information. Firstly, some basic concepts about the hesitant fuzzy sets are described. Then, the proposed hesitant fuzzy hierarchical TOPSIS method is elaborated. In this method, we consider the weight of each decision maker to decrease the errors. Also, decision makers could assign their preferences' values to compute the separation measure obtained from the concept of weight of the strategy of 'the majority of criteria' in the classic VIKOR method. Finally, a numerical example from the literature about the selection of new product idea from a real case study is presented to indicate the usefulness and performance of the proposed hesitant fuzzy hierarchical TOPSIS method. Comparative analysis is also provided to show the superiority of the proposed method against the fuzzy VIKOR method.

Keywords: hesitant fuzzy set; HFS; group decision making; TOPSIS method; hierarchical structure; industrial selection problem.

DOI: 10.1504/IJADS.2017.085084

International Journal of Applied Decision Sciences, 2017 Vol.10 No.3, pp.213 - 232

Received: 08 Sep 2016
Accepted: 03 Feb 2017

Published online: 10 Jul 2017 *

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