Search results for "Analytic hierarchy process"
showing 10 items of 67 documents
Management of uncertain pairwise comparisons in AHP through probabilistic concepts
2019
Abstract Fast and judicious decision-making is paramount for the success of many activities and processes. However, various degrees of difficulty may affect the achievement of effective and optimal solutions. Decisions should ideally meet the best trade-off among as many of the involved factors as possible, especially in the case of complex problems. Substantial cognitive and technical skills are indispensable, while not always sufficient, to carry out optimal evaluations. One of the most common causes of wrong decisions derives from uncertainty and vagueness in making forecasts or attributing judgments. The literature shows numerous efforts towards the optimization and modeling of uncertai…
Assessing the sustainability of small wastewater treatment systems: A composite indicator approach
2014
The assessment of the sustainability of wastewater treatment (WWT) systems has gained interest in recent years. However, most previous studies have focused on environmental and/or economic dimensions ignoring social aspects. Moreover, they tend to be based on sets of indicators rather than providing a holistic assessment. To overcome this limitation, this paper proposes an innovative methodology to assess the sustainability of WWT systems based on the development of a composite indicator embracing economic, environmental and social issues. Subsequently, the global sustainability of seven WWT technologies for secondary treatment in small communities is compared. The joint application of the …
Handling stakeholder uncertain judgments in strategic transport service analyses
2013
Abstract The quality level of services has to be constantly controlled, especially under conditions of competition increasing and limited resources. However, considering that service performance analyses are based on stakeholders' judgments, they can be characterized by possible uncertainties related to incompleteness for partial ignorance, imprecision for subjectivity and even vagueness. Therefore, under these conditions, unreliable results can be obtained by widely used service analysis methodologies. In the present paper, a methodology based on a recent extension of the SERVQUAL model, and that uses in combined manner the fuzzy set theory and the analytic hierarchy process method is prop…
A hierarchical framework for the measurement of maintenance efficacy and efficiency using performance indicators
2014
Maintenance plays an important role in achieving the organizational goals so that the measurement of its effectiveness and efficiency has become an essential element of industrial strategy. In literature several Maintenance Key Performance Indicators (MKPIs) are proposed but none structured approach is suggested to select the best set of MKPIs able to synthetically describe a specific maintenance context. The paper proposes a structured methodology for the maintenance performance measurement by means of MKPIs. Firstly, a multi-level hierarchical framework able to synthesize the most meaningful perspectives affecting the performance of the maintenance process is designed. Successively, some …
A Structured Methodology for the Safety Key Performance Indicator Prioritization: A Case Study
2021
Nowadays, companies have become more and more attentive to the management and evaluation of activities, processes and actions related to the safety in workplaces. This attention stems from both the need to comply with law requirements and to improve the productivity of the company by ensuring the reduction of occupational injuries and diseases. Accordingly, performance evaluation is a fundamental step also theorized by the most important guidelines on Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMSs). With this recognition, the present paper provides a methodology to prioritize Safety Key Performance Indicators (SKPIs) starting from an initial set selected from the literature. Refe…
Prioritisation of alternatives with analytical hierarchy process plus response latency and web surveys
2014
This paper introduces a new method that combines the well-known analytical hierarchy process (AHP) with a response latency metric. The response latency is the time taken by respondents to make choices over pairwise comparisons. The analytical calculation of relative importance weights of the alternatives is made by using a response latency model previously validated in several case studies. This combination aims to overcome some drawbacks of the traditional AHP related to the use of a rating scale (the so-called Saaty scale), and it is a natural way to involve response latency in established decisionmaking methods. This new method can be profitably adopted in web surveys where it is easy to…
Selecting a small run-of-river hydropower plan by the analytic hierarchy process (AHP): A case study of Miño-Sil river basin, Spain
2015
Hydroelectric power is obtained by harnessing the potential energy of a mass of water flowing along a river bed to convert it first into mechanical and then into electrical energy. The system is therefore both clean and autonomous and has a high potential for development. A small hydropower plant has an installed power capacity of below 10 MW and is considered run-of-river when it diverts part of a river flow to generate its electricity. The use of multicriteria techniques in environmental decision making, including selecting between various alternatives, is important when it involves complex decisions in a number of disciplinary fields. The most widely used of these techniques is the analy…
Quantum computing challenges in the software industry. A fuzzy AHP-based approach
2022
Context The current technology revolution has posed unexpected challenges for the software industry. In recent years, the field of quantum computing (QC) technologies has continued to grow in influence and maturity, and it is now poised to revolutionise software engineering. However, the evaluation and prioritisation of QC challenges in the software industry remain unexplored, relatively under-identified and fragmented. Objective The purpose of this study is to identify, examine and prioritise the most critical challenges in the software industry by implementing a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (F-AHP). Method First, to identify the key challenges, we conducted a systematic literature rev…
Selecting industrial robots for milling applications using AHP
2017
Abstract Industrial robots are usually used for pick-and-place applications, which require only point-to-point motion control. However, the recent developments, both in robot technology and in Computer Automated Machining (CAM) software, allow the use of these equipment in applications which require continuous path control, such as multi-axis milling processes. However, the producers do not offer robots specifically developed for this kind of application, thus the user has to choose the most appropriate robot for this goal from a wide range of general purpose robot types. This research work proposes a method based upon Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for selecting the industrial robot for …
An ex post criticism, based on stakeholders’ preferences, of a residential sector’s energy master plan: the case study of the Sicilian region
2016
Energy master plans are important tools for an effective and sustainable land governance. On the other hand, the stakeholder role in setting priorities for planning energy interventions is dramatically increasing, also in the light of recently issued European directives. The priorities of energy-saving measures of the Sicilian energy and environmental master plan were originally established with the application of typical economic indicators (the cost of saved energy and the cost of avoided pollutant emissions). During the prioritization process, there was a minor contribution from stakeholders who were not directly involved in the priority-setting process but were only asked to express the…