Title: Consensus of expert opinions in multi-attribute group decision making

Authors: Majid Nojavan; Kaveh Khalili-Damghani; Mehran Salavati

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Industrial Engineering, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Postal Code: 1151863411, Tehran, Iran ' Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Industrial Engineering, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Postal Code: 1151863411, Tehran, Iran ' Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Industrial Engineering, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Postal Code: 1151863411, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: This paper suggests a new approach for consensus of expert opinions in multi-attribute group decision making (MAGDM) problems. In the proposed approach, different opinions of a group of experts with unequal importance are aggregated using a fuzzy average based on Buckley's hypothesis test. In this way an MAGDM problem is converted to a simple fuzzy MADM problem which can be solved using existing method. The proposed method can handle the complicated real MAGDM problems efficiently. It uses both mean and deviation of opinion of a group of decision makers. The proposed method can be used in both group comparison matrix and group decision making problem. Illustrative examples are solved to show the efficacy of the proposed method in both cases. The results of proposed approach are compared with the result of two existing methods in literature. Results demonstrate the applicability and efficacy of proposed approach.

Keywords: group paired comparison matrix; Buckley; fuzzy hypothesis testing; multiattribute group decision making; fuzzy MAGDM; fuzzy MADM; multiattribute decision making; fuzzy logic; expert consensus; expert opinions; collaborative decision making.

DOI: 10.1504/IJADS.2014.065206

International Journal of Applied Decision Sciences, 2014 Vol.7 No.4, pp.361 - 381

Received: 10 Dec 2013
Accepted: 08 Jan 2014
Published online: 27 Oct 2014 *

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