The Analytic Hierarchy Process

Planning, priority setting & resource allocation using the multicriteria decision making approach of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Discover how to structure complex multi-person, multi-criteria, multi-time period problems with uncertainty & risk in hierarchic form, set priorities for the elements in each level according to their impact on the criteria or objectives of the next higher level, articulate your judgments through a series of pairwise comparisons, obtain a precise numerical measurement of the priority of each element, & synthesize all the judgments within the hierarchy to reach a best decision. THE ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS is a simple, yet powerful decision-making tool for planning, structuring priorities, weighing alternatives, allocating resources, analyzing policy impacts & resolving conflicts. This is the classical book on the AHP giving a complete grounding in the theory along with examples & applications. New theoretical results have been included in this revised & extended edition.

Executives in business, industry, & government can find out how to fine tune the decision making process by using the highly acclaimed multicriteria decision making method of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Put your decision making on a basis of logic & consistency. The AHP technique helps you organize your thought processes in a logical fashion & set priorities. This method is particularly applicable to decision making involving complex & ill- or non-structured problems with both tangible & intangible factors. You can predict likely outcomes, select the best alternatives, allocate resources according to priorities, conduct cost-benefit comparisons, plan projected or desired futures & exercise control over changes in the decision making system. This is a book of case studies & practical examples with an introduction to the theory. It can serve as a useful textbook in a decision making course in a graduate school of business.

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been one of the foremost mathematical methods for decision making with multiple criteria and has been widely studied in the operations research literature as well as applied to solve countless real-world problems. This book is meant to introduce and strengthen the readers’ knowledge of the AHP, no matter how familiar they may be with the topic. This book provides a concise, yet self-contained, introduction to the AHP that uses a novel and more pedagogical approach. It begins with an introduction to the principles of the AHP, covering the critical points of the method, as well as some of its applications. Next, the book explores further aspects of the method, including the derivation of the priority vector, the estimation of inconsistency, and the use of AHP for group decisions. Each of these is introduced by relaxing initial assumptions. Furthermore, this booklet covers extensions of AHP, which are typically neglected in elementary expositions of the methods. Such extensions concern different numerical representations of preferences and the interval and fuzzy representations of preferences to account for uncertainty. During the whole exposition, an eye is kept on the most recent developments of the method.

Management science is a di scipl ine dedicated to the development of techniques that enable decision makers to cope with the increasing complexity of our world. The early burst of excitement which was spawned by the development and successful applications of linear programming to problems in both the public and private sectors has challenged researchers to develop even more sophisticated methods to deal with the complex nature of decision making. Sophistication, however, does not always trans 1 ate into more complex mathematics. Professor Thomas L. Saaty was working for the U. S. Defense Department and for the U. S. Department of State in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In these positions, Professor Saaty was exposed to some of the most complex decisions facing the world: arms control, the Middle East problem, and the development of a transport system for a Third World country. While having made major contributions to numerous areas of mathematics and the theory of operations research, he soon realized that one did not need complex mathematics to come to grips with these decision problems, just the right mathematics! Thus, Professor Saaty set out to develop a mathematically-based technique for analyzing complex situations which was sophisticated in its simplicity. This technique became known as the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and has become very successful in helping decision makers to structure and analyze a wide range of problems.

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a prominent and powerful tool for making decisions in situations involving multiple objectives. Models, Methods, Concepts and Applications of the Analytic Hierarchy Process, 2nd Edition applies the AHP in order to solve problems focused on the following three themes: economics, the social sciences, and the linking of measurement with human values. For economists, the AHP offers a substantially different approach to dealing with economic problems through ratio scales. Psychologists and political scientists can use the methodology to quantify and derive measurements for intangibles. Meanwhile researchers in the physical and engineering sciences can apply the AHP methods to help resolve the conflicts between hard measurement data and human values. Throughout the book, each of these topics is explored utilizing real life models and examples, relevant to problems in today’s society. This new edition has been updated and includes five new chapters that includes discussions of the following: - The eigenvector and why it is necessary - A summary of ongoing research in the Middle East that brings together Israeli and Palestinian scholars to develop concessions from both parties - A look at the Medicare Crisis and how AHP can be used to understand the problems and help develop ideas to solve them.

One of the best-known methods of multi-criteria decision-making is the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). This method provides a convenient and versatile framework for modeling multi-criteria decision problems, evaluating alternatives, and deriving final priorities. Rather than imposing a "correct" decision, AHP allows the user to create a ranking of alternatives, then choose the one which is the best (or among the best). At the core of AHP is a pairwise comparisons (PC) method. This is an old technique known in various forms since at least the Middle Ages. AHP uses and develops the PC method. The aim of Understanding the Analytic Hierarchy Process is to provide the reader with a critical guide to AHP. In this book, the AHP method is considered primarily as a mathematical technique supporting the decision-making process. Key Features Collects the ideas underpinning the AHP method and discusses them together with many improvements and extensions present in the literature. As a result, the reader will receive a much more complete picture of the method. Aimed at theorists and advanced practitioners from a wide range of scientific fields, including the social, management, and technical sciences. Highlights the intuitive assumptions underlying the mathematical methods that make up AHP and the pairwise comparisons method. Provides software code for readers who wish to practice AHP analysis using the Wolfram Language.

This book is about how to make decisions using the Analytic Hierarchy Process. The basics of the theory are described in a clear, non-technical manner with many examples. It is suitable for business leaders and also is probably the best book for introducing the AHP to students at the college and graduate level. In this fifth printing of the book the reader will find a new appendix containing real-life applications that validate the use of the fundamental scale of the AHP.

Strategic Decision Making provides an effective, formal methodology that provides help with decision making problems, especially strategic ones with high stakes involving human perceptions and judgements. Focusing on applying the AHP to decision-making problems, Strategic Decision Making covers problems in the realms of business, defence and governance. Using case studies drawn from years of experience, the book discusses decision making for real life problems and includes many worked examples and solutions to problems throughout. The reader will gain comprehensive exposure to the extent of assistance that a formal methodology, such as AHP, can provide to the decision maker in evolving decisions in complex and varied domains.