MULTI CRITERIA DECISION MAKING - A STUDY

Abstract

There are many decision making situations arising frequently in every sphere of life. Amongst these ,situations, there are many which take place in an environment where goals,'constaints and the consequences of possible consequences are not known precisely or there is inexactness, ambiguity and vagueness involved in them. Such situation often crop up in, industries and other production activities. The handling of such strategic situations has become even more significant with the ever increasing scientific, technological and industrial developments. In the present work one such strategic decision making situation (installation of a set up for secondary refining of steel) which involves multiple criteria for its evaluation with group, participation has been taken up from U.P. Steels, Muzaffarnagar. Out of the available quatlitative decision making methods, two approaches Fuzzy Set Methodology and Analytic0Hierarchy Process have been selected to work with the problem. These approaches are sound' asthey offer analytical support in an exercise of decision making where group opinion is considered for final synthesis. The problem is analysed by taking the response of five persons who are involved in the decision making process in the industry and have the know how of the problem. The report concludes with the discussion of the outcome and the limitations of the study have also been outlined.