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In this study, a new version of TOPSIS method is reconstructed to deal with the problem of multi-criteria decision making. Here, the data representation of all alternatives is varied according to different criteria, such as real number, interval-valued number, set-valued number and intuitionistic fuzzy-valued number, etc. Because the distinguishing ability of each criterion can be reflected by its knowledge granularity, naturally, a knowledge granularity method is constructed to measure the criteria weights. Besides, the approach of how to select the ideal solution is redefined, especially for the case that the content of criterion according to all alternatives is not a totally ordered set anymore. What is more, the decision maker’s personal preference is considered, and the concrete indicator value can be calculated by the convex combination of the distance from possible alternatives to ideal solutions. Finally, the validity of the proposed decision-making algorithm is illustrated by a synthetic example.

There exists little investigation on multiattribute decision making under intuitionistic fuzzy environments although both crisp and fuzzy multiattribute decision making have achieved a great progress. In this paper, multiattribute decision making problems using intuitionistic fuzzy sets are investigated and the TOPSIS is further extended to develop one new methodology for solving such problems. In this methodology, an interval fractional programming model is constructed on the basis of the relative closeness coefficient using the TOPSIS. Comprehensive evaluation of each alternative, which may be described as an intuitionistic fuzzy set or interval number, is calculated using two auxiliary mathematical programming problems derived from the interval fractional programming model proposed in this paper. Optimal degrees of membership for alternatives are calculated to determine their ranking order using the concept of likelihood based on the ranking method of interval numbers. Implementation process of the method proposed in this paper is illustrated with a numerical example.

The paper investigates the dynamic hybrid multi-attribute group decision making problems, in which the decision information, provided by multiple decision makers at different periods, is expressed in real numbers, interval numbers or linguistic labels (linguistic labels can be described by triangular fuzzy numbers), respectively. We define the concepts of argument variable and dynamic weighted geometric aggregation (DWGA) operator, etc., and give an approach to determining the weights of periods based on the basic unit-interval monotonic (BUM) function, and then propose a dynamic hybrid multi-attribute group decision making method based on the hybrid geometric aggregation (HGA) operator and the DWGA operator. The method first utilizes three different TOPSISs (real-valued TOPSIS, interval-valued TOPSIS and fuzzy-valued TOPSIS) to calculate the individual closeness coefficient of each alternative to the positive and negative ideal alternatives based on the decision information expressed in real numbers, interval numbers and linguistic labels, respectively, provided by each decision maker at each period, and then employs the HGA operator to aggregate all individual closeness coefficients into the collective closeness coefficient corresponding to each alternative at each period. After doing so, the method uses the DWGA operator to fuse the collective closeness coefficients at different periods into the overall closeness coefficient corresponding to each alternative. These overall closeness coefficients are then used to rank and select the given alternatives. We can also reduce the above method to solve the dynamic multi-attribute group decision making problems, in which the decision information, provided by multiple decision makers at different periods, is expressed by means of values from the same type, either real numbers, or interval numbers or linguistic labels. Finally, the developed method is applied to multi-period investment decision making.

Hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set (HFLTS) is a set with ordered consecutive linguistic terms, and is very useful in addressing the situations where people are hesitant in providing their linguistic assessments. Wang [H. Wang, Extended hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets and their aggregation in group decision making, International Journal of Computational Intelligence Systems8(1) (2015) 14–33.] removed the consecutive condition to introduce the notion of extended HFLTS (EHFLTS). The generalized form has wider applications in linguistic group decision-making. By introducing distance measures for EHFLTSs, in this paper we develop a novel multi-criteria group decision making model to deal with hesitant fuzzy linguistic information. The model collects group linguistic information by using EHFLTSs and avoids the possible loss of information. Moreover, it can assess the importance weights of criteria according to their subjective and objective information and rank alternatives based on the rationale of TOPSIS. In order to illustrate the applicability of the proposed algorithm, two examples are given and comparisons are made with the other existing methods.

The multiple attribute decision making (MADM) is an important research field in decision science and operations research. Recently, several commonly used methods such as the TOPSIS and the VIKOR were proposed to solve the MADM problems. The TOPSIS and VIKOR are based on aggregating functions representing closeness to the ideal, which originated in the compromise programming method. The aim of this paper is to develop a new methodology called the relative ratio (RR) for the MADM problems. In this RR method, a compromise solution/alternative is determined based on the concept that the chosen alternative should be as close to the ideal solution as possible and as far away from the negative-ideal solution as possible simultaneously. The computation principle and procedure of the RR method are described in detail in this paper. Moreover comparisons of the RR method with the TOPSIS as well as the VIKOR are made theoretically and illustrated with a numerical example.

The theory of interval valued fuzzy sets is very valuable for modeling impressions of decision makers. In addition, it gives ability to quantify the ambiguous nature of subjective judgments in an easy way. In this paper, by extending the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), it is proposed a useful method based on generalized interval valued trapezoidal fuzzy numbers (GITrFNs) for solving multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) problems. In view of complexity in handling sophisticated data of GITrFNs, this paper employs the concept of signed distances to establish a simple and effective MCDA method based on the main structure of TOPSIS. An algorithm based on TOPSIS method is established to determine the priority order of given alternatives by using properties of signed distances. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed method is illustrated by a practical example of supplier selection.

Classification algorithm selection is an important issue in many disciplines. Since it normally involves more than one criterion, the task of algorithm selection can be modeled as multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) problems. Different MCDM methods evaluate classifiers from different aspects and thus they may produce divergent rankings of classifiers. The goal of this paper is to propose an approach to resolve disagreements among MCDM methods based on Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Five MCDM methods are examined using 17 classification algorithms and 10 performance criteria over 11 public-domain binary classification datasets in the experimental study. The rankings of classifiers are quite different at first. After applying the proposed approach, the differences among MCDM rankings are largely reduced. The experimental results prove that the proposed approach can resolve conflicting MCDM rankings and reach an agreement among different MCDM methods.

Airline selection is a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem faced in business travel. The evaluation process primarily involves the evaluation of several complex factors for selecting an airline that will best meet business travel needs. Previous studies have proposed several different methods that a company or organization can use to evaluate or select an airline. In its proposed approach to solving airline selection, this study integrates the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) with a type of preference ordering involving the determination a solution's similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) and multi-segment goal programming (MSGP). A real-life case study on selecting an airline is also presented.

Stochastic multi-criteria acceptability analysis (SMAA-2) and the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) are methods for evaluating alternatives with multiple criteria. SMAA is a method that is used for solving multi-criteria decision-making problems with uncertain, inaccurate information, and does not require preference information from the decision makers. The TOPSIS method is based on the principle of determining a solution with the shortest distance to the ideal solution and the greatest distance from the negative-ideal solution. This paper proposes a new method, SMAA-TOPSIS, by combining the SMAA and TOPSIS methods. The SMAA-TOPSIS method was executed for two problems: drug benefit-risk analysis and machine gun selection. This paper found that TOPSIS could be used with uncertain and arbitrarily distributed values for weights and criteria measurements by using a combination of SMAA and TOPSIS. Also, we obtained clearer and consistent SMAA outputs.

Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is one of the risk analysis techniques recommended by international quality certification systems, such as ISO 9000, ISO/TS 16949, CE, and QS9000. Most current FMEA methods use the risk priority number (RPN) value to evaluate the risk of failure. The RPN value is the mathematical product of the three parameters of a failure mode that is rated between 1 and 10 in terms of its severity (S), occurrence (O), and detection (D), respectively. However, the RPN method has been found with three main drawbacks: (1) high duplicate RPN values, (2) failure to consider the ordered weights of S, O, and D, and (3) failure to consider the direct and indirect relationships between the failure modes and causes of failure. Therefore, this paper integrates the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) approach to rank the risk of failure. A case of an inlet plate ring that has been drawn from a professional mechanical factory is presented to further illustrate the proposed approach. After comparing the result that was obtained from the proposed method with the conventional RPN and DEMATEL methods, it was found that the proposed method can resolve the abovementioned RPN ranking issues and give a more appropriate risk assessment than other listed approaches to provide valuable information for the decision makers.

In recent years several previous scholars made attempts to develop, extend, propose and apply Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) for solving problems in decision making issues. Indeed, there are questions, how TOPSIS can help for solving these problems? Or does TOPSIS solved decision making problems in the real world? Therefore, this study shows the recent developments of TOPSIS approach which are presented by previous scholars. To achieve this objective, there are 105 reviewed papers which developed, extended, proposed and presented TOPSIS approach for solving DM problems. The results of the study indicated that 49 scholars have extended or developed TOPSIS technique and 56 scholars have proposed or presented new modifications for problems solution related to TOPSIS technique from 2000 to 2015. In addition, results of this study indicated that, previous studies have modifications related to this technique in 2011 more than other years.

As a generalization of intuitionistic fuzzy set, the Pythagorean fuzzy set is interesting and very useful in modeling uncertain information in real-world decision-making problems. In this paper, we develop a new method for Pythagorean fuzzy multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problems with aggregation operators and distance measures. First, we present the Pythagorean fuzzy ordered weighted averaging weighted average distance (PFOWAWAD) operator. The main advantage of the PFOWAWAD operator is that it uses distance measures in a unified framework between the ordered weighted averaging (OWA) operator and weighted average (WA) that considers the degree of importance of each concept in the aggregation. Some of its main properties and special cases are studied. Then, based on the proposed operator, a hybrid TOPSIS method, called PFOWAWAD-TOPSIS is introduced for Pythagorean fuzzy MCDM problem. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the practicality and feasibility of the developed method.

This paper presents an integrated model based on a compromised solution method to solve fuzzy belief multi-objective large-scale nonlinear programming (FBMOLSNLP) problem with block angular structure. A new method is proposed to transfer each belief decision-making problem into some fuzzy problems. Furthermore, we propose a new compromise method of decision-making as one of the most efficient methods based on the particular measure of closeness to the ideal solution to aggregate multi-objective decision-making (MODM) problems into a single problem. The decomposition algorithm based on Dantzig–Wolfe is utilized to reduce the large-dimensional objective space into a two-dimensional space. Then, Zimmerman method is applied to transfer each bi-objective to a single-objective. Moreover, TOPSIS and VIKOR are utilized as two independent solution methods to aggregate each multi-objective sub-problem. Finally, a new single-objective nonlinear programming problem is solved to find the final solution. To justify the proposed model, two illustrative examples are provided, and the results of three decision methods are compromised.

Studies have shown that online product reviews significantly affect consumer purchase decisions. However, it is difficult for the consumer to read online product reviews one by one because the number of online reviews is very large. Thus, to facilitate consumer purchase decisions, how to rank products through online reviews is a valuable research topic. This paper proposes a method for ranking products through online reviews based on sentiment classification and the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). The method consists of two parts: (1) identifying sentiment orientations of the online reviews based on sentiment classification and (2) ranking alternative products based on interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy TOPSIS. In the first part, the online reviews of the alternative products concerning multiple attributes are preprocessed, and an algorithm based on support vector machine and one-versus-one strategy is developed for classifying the sentiment orientations of online reviews into three categories: positive, neutral, and negative. In the second part, based on the percentages of the online reviews with different sentiment orientations and the numbers of online reviews of different products crawled from the website, an interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy number is constructed to represent the performance of an alternative product with respect to the product attribute. Additionally, the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy TOPSIS method is employed to determine a ranking of the alternative products. Finally, a case analysis is provided to illustrate the application of the proposed method.

ABC analysis is a widespread classification technique designed to manage inventory items in an effective way by relaxing controls on low valued items and applying more rigorous controls on high valued items. In the literature, many classification models issued from different methodologies such as Mathematical Programming (MP), Metaheuristics, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Multicriteria Decision Making (MCDM) are proposed to perform the ABC inventory classification. To the best of our knowledge, the cross-fertilization of classification models issued from different methodologies is rarely tackled in the literature. This paper proposes some hybrid classification models based on both Genetic Algorithm (Metaheuristics) and two MCDM methods (Weighted Sum (WS) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS)) to carry out the ABC inventory classification. To test the performance of the proposed classification models with respect to some existing models, a benchmark dataset from a Hospital Respiratory Therapy Unit (HRTU) is used. The computational results show that our proposed models outperformed the existing classification models according to some inventory performance measures. An additional performance analysis has also shown the effectiveness of our proposed models in inventory management.

The single-valued neutrosophic set (SVNS) is considered as an attractive tool for handling highly uncertain and vague information. With this regard, different from the most current distance-based technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) methods, this study proposes a correlation-based TOPSIS model for addressing the single-valued neutrosophic (SVN) multiple attribute decision making (MADM) problems. To achieve this aim, we first develop a novel conception of SVN correlation coefficient, whose significant feature is that it lies in the interval [$-1$,1], which is in accordance with the classical correlation coefficient in statistics, whereas all the existing SVN correlation coefficients in the literature are within unit interval [0,1]. Afterwards, a weighted SVN correlation coefficient is also introduced to infuse the importance of attributes. Moreover, a correlation-based comprehensive index is further proposed to establish the central structure of TOPSIS model, called the SVN correlation-based TOPSIS approach. Finally, a numerical example and relevant comparative analysis are implemented to explain the applicability and effectiveness of the mentioned methodology.

The selection of software programmer applicants based on multiperspective evaluation criteria (grade point average (GPA) and soft skills of the applicants) is needed instead of an interview because an interview does not necessarily lead to hiring the best candidate amongst the applicants. The selection of a suitable software programmer is considered a challenging task owing to the following factors: (1) data variation, (2) multiple evaluation criteria and (3) criterion importance. A general framework for the selection of the best software programmer applicants is not available in the existing literature. The present study aims to propose a novel multiperspective hiring framework based on multicriteria analysis to select the best software programmer amongst several applicants. A decision matrix (DM) is constructed for the selection of the best programmer applicants according to multiple criteria, namely, structured programming, object-oriented programming, data structure, database system and courseware engineering. Each criterion includes two parameters, namely, GPA and soft skills, and these criteria cross over with programmer applicants as alternatives. The standard and expert opinion of the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge is used to distribute the criteria in the DM. The two commonly used techniques of multicriteria decision-making are analytic hierarchy process (AHP) for weighing the criteria and technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) for ranking the alternatives (programmer applicants). The data used in this study include 60 software engineering students who graduated in 2016 from Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris. Results show that integrating multilayer analytic hierarchy process (MLAHP) and group TOPSIS are effective for solving applicant selection problems. Group TOPSIS uses different contexts — internal and external aggregation — and indicates similar results. Objective validation is used for the ranking of the results, which are equally divided into four parts. Furthermore, the applicants are systematically ranked. This study benefits application software, system software and computer programming tool companies by providing a method that improves software quality whilst reducing time and cost in the selection process.

The technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) is one of the most well-known methods in multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) problems. The classical TOPSIS method employs a similarity index to rank alternatives. However, the chosen alternative sometimes does not have the shortest distance to the positive ideal solution (PIS) and remotest distance from the negative ideal solution (NIS), simultaneously. Besides, in some cases, TOPSIS cannot assign a unique rank to alternatives. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new similarity TOPSIS index based on the relative distance to the best and worst points. In the proposed method, by treating the separations of an alternative from the PIS and the NIS as negative criterion and positive criterion, respectively, we reduce the original MCDM problem to a new one with two criteria. The proposed index, based on different weights, in optimistic, pessimistic, and apathetic cases, easily determines the score of each alternative. Finally, we illustrate the proposed index using four numerical examples. The results are compared with those published in the literature.

Today, smartphones are being used to manage almost all aspects of our lives, ranging from personal to professional. Different users have different requirements and preferences while selecting a smartphone. There is ‘no one-size fits all’ remedy when it comes to smartphones. Additionally, the availability of a wide variety of smartphones in the market makes it difficult for the user to select the best one. The use of only product ratings to choose the best smartphone is not sufficient because the interpretation of such ratings can be quite vague and ambiguous. In this paper, reviews of products are incorporated into the decision-making process in order to select the best product for a recommendation. The top five different brands of smartphones are considered for a case study. The proposed system, then, analyses the customer reviews of these smartphones from two online platforms, Flipkart and Amazon, using sentiment analysis techniques. Next, it uses a hybrid MCDM approach, where characteristics of AHP and TOPSIS methods are combined to evaluate the best smartphones from a list of five alternatives and recommend the best product. The result shows that brand1 smartphone is considered to be the best smartphone among five smartphones based on four important decision criteria. The result of the proposed system is also validated by manually annotated customer reviews of the smartphone by experts. It shows that recommendation of the best product by the proposed system matches the experts’ ranking. Thus, the proposed system can be a useful decision support tool for the best smartphone recommendation.

Performance evaluation is relevant for supporting managerial decisions related to the improvement of public emergency departments (EDs). As different criteria from ED context and several alternatives need to be considered, selecting a suitable Multicriteria Decision-Making (MCDM) approach has become a crucial step for ED performance evaluation. Although some methodologies have been proposed to address this challenge, a more complete approach is still lacking. This paper bridges this gap by integrating three potent MCDM methods. First, the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) is used to determine the criteria and sub-criteria weights under uncertainty, followed by the interdependence evaluation via fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (FDEMATEL). The fuzzy logic is merged with AHP and DEMATEL to illustrate vague judgments. Finally, the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is used for ranking EDs. This approach is validated in a real 3-ED cluster. The results revealed the critical role of Infrastructure (21.5%) in ED performance and the interactive nature of Patient safety ($C+R=12.771$). Furthermore, this paper evidences the weaknesses to be tackled for upgrading the performance of each ED.