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Information Sciences 178 (2008) 37553765

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Information Sciences
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ins

Applying fuzzy linguistic preference relations to the improvement of


consistency of fuzzy AHP
Tien-Chin Wang a,*, Yueh-Hsiang Chen b,c
a
Department of Information Management, I-Shou University, 1, Section 1, Hsueh-Cheng Road, Ta-Hsu Hsiang, Kaohsiung 840, Taiwan
b
Department of Information Engineering, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung 840, Taiwan
c
Department of Information Management, Kao-Yuan University, Kaohsiung 821, Taiwan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The lack of consistency in decision making can lead to inconsistent conclusions. In fuzzy
Received 26 April 2007 analytic hierarchy process (fuzzy AHP) method, it is difcult to ensure a consistent pair-
Received in revised form 31 March 2008 wise comparison. Furthermore, establishing a pairwise comparison matrix requires nn1 2
Accepted 30 May 2008
judgments for a level with n criteria (alternatives). The number of comparisons increases
as the number of criteria increases. Therefore, the decision makers judgments will most
likely be inconsistent. To alleviate inconsistencies, this study applies fuzzy linguistic pref-
erence relations (Fuzzy LinPreRa) to construct a pairwise comparison matrix with additive
Keywords:
Fuzzy AHP
reciprocal property and consistency. In this study, the fuzzy AHP method is reviewed, and
Consistency then the Fuzzy LinPreRa method is proposed. Finally, the presented method is applied to
Fuzzy linguistic preference relations the example addressed by Kahraman et al. [C. Kahraman, D. Ruan, I. Dogan, Fuzzy group
Fuzzy LinPreRa decision making for facility location selection, Information Sciences 157 (2003) 135
Decision making 153]. This study reveals that the proposed method yields consistent decision rankings from
only n  1 pairwise comparisons, which is the same result as in Kahraman et al. research.
The presented fuzzy linguistic preference relations method is an easy and practical way to
provide a mechanism for improving consistency in fuzzy AHP method.
 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is one of the extensively used multi-criteria decision making methods. Though this
method is easier to understand and it can model expert opinions, however, the conventional AHP still cannot process impre-
cise or vague knowledge. Zadeh [51] introduced fuzzy sets theory, to rationalize uncertainty associated with impression or
vagueness, and in a manner analogous to human thought. Thus, fuzzy AHP, a fuzzy extension of AHP [35], was developed to
solve imprecise hierarchical problems. Of the many fuzzy AHP methods developed by various authors, most propose system-
atic approaches to the alternative selection and justication problem using the concepts of fuzzy set theory and hierarchical
structure analysis [2,47,11,14,16,29,30,33,34].
The study of consistency is crucial for avoiding misleading solutions. As part of the AHP procedure, a consistency check is
required to identify inconsistency matrix. For comparison matrix which fails the consistency test, the decision maker must
redo the ratios. Unlike the AHP method, the ratios are point estimates and the comparison ratios in fuzzy AHP method are
given by fuzzy numbers. The likelihood of having inconsistent ratios within the given fuzzy numbers is therefore far greater.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 7 6577711x6568; fax: +886 7 6577056.


E-mail addresses: tcwang@isu.edu.tw, dr.deor@gmail.com, 123@king.idv.tw (T.-C. Wang), chris@cc.kyu.edu.tw (Y.-H. Chen).

0020-0255/$ - see front matter  2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ins.2008.05.028
3756 T.-C. Wang, Y.-H. Chen / Information Sciences 178 (2008) 37553765

To expect the decision maker to provide the comparison ratios such that the fuzzy numbers include only consistency would
be laborious and highly unrealistic. The critical void is not only the need to have a consistency test to accept consistent
matrices, but also a mechanism to lter out inconsistent information within a consistent matrix. Thus, Leung and Cao
[37] proposed setting deviation tolerances when performing fuzzy consistency analysis and determining whether a fuzzy
positive reciprocal matrix is consistent based on R  I < 0.1 [39]. However, establishing a pairwise comparison matrix requires
nn1
2
judgments for a level with n criteria (alternatives), the number of comparisons increases as the number of criteria
(alternatives) increases. Consequently, the decision makers judgments will most likely be inconsistent.
Preference relations are the most common representation of information used for solving decision making problems due
to their effectiveness in modeling decision processes. Generally, these preference relations can be categorized into multipli-
cative preference relations [15,19,44], fuzzy preference relations [1,810,13,15,24,38,4147] and linguistic preference rela-
tions [17,18,2023,25,26,4850,52]. Herrera-Viedma et al. [24] proposed a new concept of consistency based on the additive
transitivity property of fuzzy preference relations (Fuzzy LinPreRa) to avoid misleading conclusions. This new characteriza-
tion simplies the analysis of consistency among expert opinions. Based on this new characterization, this study proposes a
method for constructing consistent fuzzy preference relations from a set of n  1 preference data. However, all of the above
attempts focus on the decision matrix with crisp values, which cannot reect expert opinions when modeling imprecise
judgments. Crisp data are inadequate to model real-life situations. Since human judgments including preferences are often
vague and cannot estimate human preference with an exact numerical value.
To solve the above problems, Wang and Chen [42] proposed a method using fuzzy linguistic assessment variables to con-
struct fuzzy linguistic preference relation (Fuzzy LinPreRa) matrices based on consistent fuzzy preference relations [24]. In
[42], this paper only illustrates how to construct a Fuzzy LinPreRa matrix, not explains the applications of the proposed
method. Thus, this study applies Fuzzy LinPreRa method to enhance the consistency of the fuzzy AHP method. The proposed
method yields decision matrices for making pairwise comparisons using additive reciprocal property and consistency. In
addition, it required only n  1 comparison judgments to ensure consistency for a level with n criteria (alternatives).
This study is organized as follows: Section 2 reviews consistent fuzzy preference relations. Section 3 describes triangular
fuzzy numbers. Section 4 reviews the fuzzy AHP method. Section 5 proposes the Fuzzy LinPreRa method. Section 6 presents
an illustrative example. Finally, Section 7 draws the conclusions.

2. Consistent fuzzy preference relations

For a set of criteria and a set of alternatives, fuzzy preference relations provide decision makers with values representing
varying degrees of preference for one alternative over another. The following briey describes some denitions and propo-
sitions presented in [8,9,1723,25].
Given A = {a1, a2, . . . , an}, with n P 2 is a nite set of alternatives to be pairwise assessed by experts (E = {e1, e2, . . . , em}, with
m P 2). Expert preferences for the set of alternatives A may be expressed as follows [10]:

(a) Multiplicative preference relations: a multiplicative preference relation R in terms of a set of alternatives A, repre-
sented by a matrix R : A  A ! R, rij = R(ai, aj), where rij is the preference ratio of alternative ai to aj. Saaty [39,40] sug-
gests measuring rij using a ratio scale, and the dened 19 scale. Herein, rij = 1 represents the absence of a difference
between ai and aj; rij = 9 denotes that ai is maximally better than aj. In this case, the preference relation R is typically
assumed to be a multiplicative reciprocal, aij  aji = 1 "i, j 2 {1, . . ., n}.
(b) Fuzzy preference relations: a fuzzy preference relation P on a set of alternatives A is a fuzzy set on the product set
A  A with membership function P : A  A ? [0, 1]. The preference relation is represented by the n  n matrix
P = (pij), where pij = P(ai, aj) "i,j 2 {1, . . . , n}. Herein, pij is the preference ratio of alternative ai to aj: pij = 1/2 means that
no difference exits between ai and aj, pij = 1 indicates that ai is absolutely better than aj, and pij > 1/2 indicates that ai
is better than aj. In this case, the preference matrix P is generally assumed to be an additive reciprocal of
pij + pji = 1 "i, j 2 {1, . . . , n}.

Herrera-Viedma et al. [24] proposed consistent fuzzy preference relations to construct the decision matrices of pairwise
comparisons based on additive transitivity. Wang and Chen [43] applied consistent fuzzy preference relations to partnership
selection. Wang and Chang [41] applied consistent fuzzy preference relations to forecast the probability of successful know-
ledge management. In [24], they developed some important propositions given below.
Proposition 2.1 [9,17,24,27,28]. Consider a set of alternatives, X = {x1, . . . , xn}, associated with a reciprocal multiplicative
preference relation A = (aij) for aij 2 [1/9, 9]. Then, the corresponding reciprocal fuzzy preference relation, P = (pij) with pij 2 [0, 1]
associated with A is given as pij gaij 12 1 log9 aij .
log9aij is considered when aij is between 1/9 and 9. If aij is between 1/7 and 7, then log7aij is used.
Proposition 2.2 [24]. For a reciprocal fuzzy preference relation P = (pij), the following statements are equivalent;

(a) pij pjk pki 32 8i; j; k.


(b) pij pjk pki 32 8i < j < k.
T.-C. Wang, Y.-H. Chen / Information Sciences 178 (2008) 37553765 3757

Proposition 2.3 [24]. For a reciprocal fuzzy preference relation P = (pij), the following statements are equivalent;

(a) pij pjk pki 32 8i < j < k.


(b) pii1 pi1i2    pik1ik piki k1
2
8i < j.

Proposition 2.3 is very important because it can be used to construct a consistent fuzzy preference relation from the set of
n  1 values {p12, p23, . . . , pn1n}. Accordingly, experts are able to express consistent preferences in decision processes. A deci-
sion matrix with entries in the interval [k, 1 + k], k > 0 besides the interval [0, 1], can be constructed by transforming the
obtained values using a transformation function that preserves reciprocity and additive consistency. The transforming func-
xk
tion is f : [k, 1 + k] ? [0, 1], f x 12k .
The drawback of consistent fuzzy preference relations is that the values in consistent fuzzy preference relation matrix are
crisp, which cannot reect expert opinions when modeling imprecise judgments.

3. Triangular fuzzy numbers

The fuzzy set theory [51] is designed to deal with the extraction of the primary possible outcome from a multiplicity of
information vaguely and imprecisely. Fuzzy set theory treats vague data as possibility distributions in terms of set member-
ships. Once determined and dened, the sets of memberships in possibility distributions can be effectively used in logical
reasoning. Triangular fuzzy numbers are one of the major components. According to the denition of Laarhoven and Pedrycz
[35], a triangular fuzzy number (TFN) should possess the following basic features.
Denition 3.1. A fuzzy number A on R to be a TFN if its membership function leA x : R ! 0; 1 is equal to
2
x  l=m  l; l 6 x 6 m;
leA x 4 u  x=u  m; m 6 x 6 u; 1
0; otherwise:
where l and u represent the lower and upper bounds of the fuzzy number A, e respectively, and m is the median value. The TFN
is denoted as Ae l; m; u and the following is the operational laws of two TFNs Ae 1 l1 ; m1 ; u1 and A
e 2 l2 ; m2 ; u2 , as
shown [31,32]:
Fuzzy number addition :

A e 2 l1 ; m1 ; u1  l2 ; m2 ; u2 l1 l2 ; m1 m2 ; u1 u2 :
e1  A 2
Fuzzy number subtraction :
A e 2 l1 ; m1 ; u1  l2 ; m2 ; u2 l1  u2 ; m1  m2 ; u1  l2 :
e1  A 3
Fuzzy number multiplication :
e1  A
A e 2 l1 ; m1 ; u1  l2 ; m2 ; u2 l1  l2 ; m1  m2 ; u1  u2 for li > 0; mi > 0; ui > 0: 4
Fuzzy number division :
e 1A
A e 2 l1 ; m1 ; u1 l2 ; m2 ; u2 l1 =u2 ; m1 =m2 ; u1 =l2 for li > 0; mi > 0; ui > 0: 5
Fuzzy number logarithm:
e log l; log m; log u n is base:
logn A 6
n n n

Fuzzy number reciprocal:


e 1 l; m; u1 1=u; 1=m; 1=l for l; m; u > 0:
A 7
Note that the results of Eqs. (4)(7) are not TFNs, but these results can be approximated by TFNs [31,32].

4. Fuzzy AHP method

With the AHP not being able to overcome the deciency of the fuzziness during decision making, Laarhoven and Pedrycz
[35] have evolved Saatys AHP into the fuzzy AHP, bringing the triangular fuzzy number of the fuzzy set theory directly into
the pairwise comparison matrix of the AHP. The purpose is to solve vague problems, which occur during the analysis of
criteria and judgment process. The procedure of the fuzzy AHP is described as follows:

Step 1: Hierarchical structure construction.


Placing the goal of the desired problem on the top layer of the hierarchical structure, and the evaluation criteria on
the second layer, then the alternatives lay on the bottom layer.
3758 T.-C. Wang, Y.-H. Chen / Information Sciences 178 (2008) 37553765

Table 1
Membership function of linguistic scale

Fuzzy number Linguistic scales Membership function


~
1 Equally important (1, 1, 3)
~
3 Weakly important (1, 3, 5)
~
5 Essentially important (3, 5, 7)
~
7 Very strong important (5, 7, 9)
~
9 Absolutely important (7, 9, 9)

Step 2: Constructing the fuzzy judgment matrix C e.


The fuzzy judgment matrix C e is pairwise comparison matrix among each alternative and evaluation criteria. Assign
linguistic terms [8,12] shown in Table 1, to the pairwise comparisons by asking which one of two criteria is more
important:
2 ~ 3 2 ~ 3
1 ~c12    ~c1n 1 ~c12    ~c1n
6 ~    ~c2n 7 6 1 ~    ~c2n 7
e 6 ~c21
C
1 7 6 ~c12 1 7;
4     5 4     5
~cn1 ~cn2  1 ~ ~c1 ~c1  1 ~
1n 2n

where
8
~ 3;
< 1; ~ 5;
~ 7; ~ criterion i is relative importance to criterion j;
~ 9;
~ i j;
~cij 1;
: ~ 1 ~ 1 ~ 1 ~ 1 ~ 1
1 ; 3 ; 5 ; 7 ; 9 ; criterion i is relative less importance to criterion j:
Step 3: Calculating fuzzy weights of each criterion.
The fuzzy weights of each criterion are calculated by Buckley [3] as follows:
1
~r i ~ci1  ~ci2      ~cin n 8i 1; 2; . . . ; n;
~r i 8
~i
w ;
~r1      ~rn
where ~cij is the fuzzy comparison value of criterion i to criterion j, ~r i is the geometric mean of fuzzy comparison
~ i is the fuzzy weight of the ith criterion.
value of criterion i to each criterion, and w
Step 4: Hierarchical layer sequencing.
The nal fuzzy weight value of each alternative is calculated by hierarchical layer sequencing as
X
n
ei
U ~ j  ~rij ;
w 9
j1

where ~rij is the fuzzy weight value of the jth criterion to the ith alternative. U e i can be indicated by a TFN,
e i l; m; u.
U
Step 5: Ranking alternatives.
The nal fuzzy weight values of alternatives are represented in terms of fuzzy numbers. It is necessary to dene a
method for building a crisp value from the fuzzy number to choose the optimum alternative. Therefore, a defuzz-
ication process needs to be adopted, which arranges the fuzzy numbers for ranking. The fuzzy mean and spread
method [36] is adopted to defuzzify and rank the fuzzy numbers. This method ranks fuzzy numbers by means of the
e i is a TFN (l,m,u) with uniform distribution. Its mean x U
probabilities of fuzzy events, assuming that U e i is dened as

e i l m u=3:
x U 10
e 1; U
The fuzzy numbers U e 2; . . . ; U
e m can be ranked according to the value of the fuzzy mean x U
e i to determine the
optimum alternative.

From the above procedure, constructing a pairwise comparison matrix requires nn1 2
judgments to be made for a level
with n criteria or alternatives and lacks consistency test. The number of comparisons increases as the number of criteria or
alternatives increases. Therefore, the number of inconsistent conditions is also likely to increase.

5. Fuzzy LinPreRa method

To solve the above problems regarding the inconsistency in decision making process, this study applies the Fuzzy LinPreRa
method [42] to enhance the consistency of fuzzy AHP method. The proposed method establishes fuzzy preference relations
e p
matrices P ~ij pLij ; pM R
ij ; pij based on consistent fuzzy preference relations and fuzzy linguistic assessment variables. The
matrices thus were termed the Fuzzy linguistic preference relations. Table 2 lists the fuzzy linguistic assessment variables.
T.-C. Wang, Y.-H. Chen / Information Sciences 178 (2008) 37553765 3759

The consistency of a fuzzy positive reciprocal matrix is dened below.


e a
Denition 5.1 [3,13]. A fuzzy positive matrix A ~ij is reciprocal if and only if a ~1
~ji aij .

e a
Denition 5.2 [3]. A fuzzy positive reciprocal matrix A ~ij is consistent if and only if ij  jk
ik.

Proposition 5.1. Given that a set of alternatives, X = {x1, . . . , xn} associated with a fuzzy reciprocal multiplicative preference matrix
e a
A ~ij with a
~ij 2 1=9; 9, and the corresponding fuzzy reciprocal linguistic preference relation, P e p
~ij with p
~ij 2 0; 1, veries
the additive reciprocal, then, the following statements are equivalent.

(a) PLij PRji 1 8i; j 2 f1; . . . ; ng.


(b) PM M
ij P ji 1 8i; j 2 f1; . . . ; ng.

(c) PRij PLji 1 8i; j 2 f1; . . . ; ng.

Proof. By Denition 5.1, for e ij a


A ~ij being a reciprocal fuzzy multiplicative preference matrix,
~ ~ 1 ~ ~ ~
aji aij 1=aij ) aij  aji
1
Taking logarithms by Eq. (6) on both sides yields
~ij  log9 a
log9 a ~ji
0 8i; j 2 f1; . . . ; ng

Adding 2 by Eq. (2) and dividing 2 by Eq. (5) on both sides then
1 1 ~ 8i; j 2 f1; . . . ; ng
~ij  1  log9 a
1  log9 a ~ji
1
2 2
Applying Proposition 2.1,
~ij  p
p ~ 8i; j 2 f1; . . . ; ng
~ji
1
pLij ; pM R ~
ij ; pij  pji
1 1; 1; 1

~ji
1  pLij ; pM
p R R M L
ij ; pij 1  pij ; 1  pij ; 1  pij

pLji ; pM R R M L
ji ; pji
1  pij ; 1  pij ; 1  pij

pLij pRji 1; pM M
ij pji 1; pRij pLji 1 8i; j; k 

e p
Proposition 5.2. According to Propositions 2.2 and 2.3, for a reciprocal fuzzy linguistic preference relation P ~ij pLij ; pM R
ij ; pij
to be consistent, veries the additive consistency, then, the following statements must be equivalent:

(a) pLij pLjk pRki 32 8i < j < k.


(b) pM M M 3
ij pjk pki 2 8i < j < k.

(c) pRij pRjk pLki 32 8i < j < k.


(d) pLii1 pLi1i2    pLj1j pRji ji1
2
8i < j.
ji1
(e) pM M M M
ii1 pi1i2    pj1j pji 2
8i < j.
(f) pRii1 pRi1i2    pRj1j pLji ji1
2
8i < j.

e a
Proof. By Denition 5.2, for A ~ij being consistent then ij  jk ik "i, j, k.
Taking logarithms by Eq. (6) on both sides yields
~ij  log9 a
log9 a ~jk log9 a
~ik 8i; j; k;
~ ~ ~ ~
log9 aij  log9 ajk  log9 aik 0;
log a~ij  log a~jk  log a ~
~ki 0:
9 9 9

Table 2
Fuzzy linguistic assessment variables

Linguistic variables Fuzzy numbers


Very poor (VP) 0; pM R
VP ; pVP
.. ..
. .
Medium (M) pL ; 0:5; pRM
.. .. M
. .
Very good (VG) pLVG ; pM
VG ; 1
3760 T.-C. Wang, Y.-H. Chen / Information Sciences 178 (2008) 37553765

Adding 3 by Eq. (2) and dividing 2 by Eq. (5) on both sides then

1 1 1 ~
3
~ij  1  log9 a
1  log9 a ~jk  1  log9 a
~ki 8i; j; k:
2 2 2 ~
2
Applying Proposition 2.1,
~ 3 3 3
3
p ~jk  p
~ij  p ~ki ; ; ;
~
2 2 2 2
 
3 3 3
pLij ; pM
ij ; pR
ij  pL
jk ; pM
jk ; pR
jk  ~
p ki ; ; ;
2 2 2
 
3 3 3
~ki
p ; ;  pLij pLjk ; pM M R R
ij pjk ; pij pjk ;
2 2 2
 
3 3 M 3
~ki pLki ; pM
p R
ki ; pki  pRij  pRjk ;  pM L L
ij  pjk ;  pij  pjk ;
2 2 2
3 3 3
) pLij pLjk pRki ; pM pM M
jk pki ; pR pRjk pLki :
2 ij 2 ij 2
Thus the expressions (a), (b) and (c) are obtained. h
If i < j and k = j  i, the expression (d) can be rewritten as
n1
PLii1 PLi1i2    P Lin1in PRini 8i < j:
2
Mathematical induction is used to prove this part of the proposition. The base clause is clearly true for k = 1. The recursion
clause requires it to be demonstrated that the hypothesis is true for k = n
n1
PLii1 PLi1i2    P Lin1in PRini ;
2
then it is true for k = n + 1:

PLii1 PLi1i2    P Lin1in PRini PLii1    PLin1in P Linin1 PRin1i


 
n1
 P Rini PLinin1 PRin1i
2
 
n1 n1 3 n2
P Liin  1 P Linin1 PRin1i ;
2 2 2 2
thus the expression (d) is established.
Similarly, expressions (e) and (f) are established.
Notably, if the values of the obtained matrix P e with elements p
~ij in the interval [c, 1 + c] (c > 0) are not in the interval
[0, 1], the obtained fuzzy numbers would need to be transformed via a transformation function to preserve the reciprocity
and additive consistency, namely f : [c,1 + c] ? [0, 1], verifying

(a) f(c) = 0.
(b) f(1 + c) = 1.
(c) f(xL) + f(xR) = 1 "x 2 [c,1 + c].
(d) f(xM) + f(xM) = 1 "x 2 [c,1 + c].
(e) f(xR) + f(xL) = 1 "x 2 [c,1 + c].
(f) f xL f yL f zR 32 8xL ; yL ; zR 2 c; 1 c such that xL yL zR 32.
(g) f xM f yM f zM 32 8xM ; yM ; zM 2 c; 1 c such that xM yM zM 32.
(h) f xR f yR f zL 32 8xR ; yR ; zL 2 c; 1 c such that xR yR zL 32.

The linear solution verifying (a) and (b) has the form
f xL a  xL b, being a; :b 2 R.
f xM a  xM b, being a; :b 2 R.
f xR a  xR b; beinga; :b 2 R. These functions are

1 c xL c
f xL  xL ;
1 2c 1 2c 1 2c
1 c xM c
f xM  xM ;
1 2c 1 2c 1 2c
1 c xR c
f xR  xR :
1 2c 1 2c 1 2c
T.-C. Wang, Y.-H. Chen / Information Sciences 178 (2008) 37553765 3761

which verify (c), (d) and (e)


xL c xR c xL xR 2c 1 2c
f xL f xR 1;
1 2c 1 2c 1 2c 1 2c
M M M M
x c x c x x 2c 1 2c
f xM f xM 1;
1 2c 1 2c 1 2c 1 2c
R L L R
x c x c x x 2c 1 2c
f xR f xL 1
1 2c 1 2c 1 2c 1 2c
and when xL yL zR 32 ; xM yM zM 32 ; xR yR zL 32
xL c yL c zR c xL yL zR 3c 3=2 3c 3
f xL f yL f zR ;
1 2c 1 2c 1 2c 1 2c 1 2c 2
M M M M M M
M M M x c y c z c x y z 3c 3=2 3c 3
f x f y f z ;
1 2c 1 2c 1 2c 1 2c 1 2c 2
R R L xR c yR c zL c xR yR zL 3c 3=2 3c 3
f x f y f z ;
1 2c 1 2c 1 2c 1 2c 1 2c 2
then (f), (g) and (h) are veried.

6. Illustrative example

The proposed method is demonstrated here using an example presented earlier in Kahraman et al. [30]. In this example,
NEKYEK, a automobile manufacturer, is considering investing in a new factory and must select the optimum location from
among various alternatives. The criteria considered in this decision are environmental regulation (C1), host community (C2),
competitive advantage (C3) and political risk (C4). The location alternatives are Istanbul (P1), Ankara (P2) and Izmir (P3).
Fig. 1 shows the hirerarchy structure.
Table 3 lists the fuzzy linguistic assessment variables. The decision-maker expresses according to one of the opinions con-
tained in Table 3. The decision maker can also add or remove linguistic terms according to a specic situation. For example,
the accuracy and the number of terms are increased as more detailed information becomes available. Table 4 lists the pair-
wise comparison matrix for the goal and all criteria. Table 5 displays the pairwise comparison matrix for all criteria and
alternatives.
For example, Table 4 has four criteria, and only n  1 = 4  1 = 3 comparison judgments (p12, p23, p34) are required to con-
struct the fuzzy preference relation decision matrix. According to Propositions 5.1 and 5.2, the entire calculation is as
follows:
pL31 1:5  pR12  pR23 1:5  0:9  0:3 0:3;
pL41 2  pR12  pR23  pR34 2  0:9  0:3  1 0:2;
pL42 1:5  pR23  pR34 1:5  0:3  1 0:2;
pM M M
31 1:5  p12  p23 1:5  0:7  0:1 0:7;
p41 2  p12  p23  pM
M M M
34 2  0:7  0:1  0:9 0:3;
pM M M
42 1:5  p23  p34 1:5  0:1  0:9 0:5;
pR31 1:5  pL12  pL23 1:5  0:5  0 1:0;
pR41 2  pL12  pL23  pL34 2  0:5  0  0:7 0:8;
pR42 1:5  pL23  pL34 1:5  0  0:7 0:8:

Goal

C1 C2 C3 C4

P1 P2 P3

Fig. 1. The hierarchy of the problem.


3762 T.-C. Wang, Y.-H. Chen / Information Sciences 178 (2008) 37553765

Table 3
Fuzzy linguistic assessment variables

Linguistic variables Triangle fuzzy numbers


Very poor (VP) (0, 0, 0.1)
Poor (P) (0, 0.1, 0.3)
Medium poor (MP) (0.1, 0.3, 0.5)
Medium (M) (0.3, 0.5, 0.7)
Medium good (MG) (0.5, 0.7, 0.9)
Good (G) (0.7, 0.9, 1)
Very good (VG) (0.9, 1, 1)

Table 4
Pairwise comparison of four criteria with respect to the goal

Goal C1 C2 C3 C4
C1  MG  
C2  P 
C3  G
C4 

Table 5
Pairwise comparison of three alternatives with respect to four criteria

P1 P2 P3
C1
P1  MP 
P2  MP
P3 
C2
P1  MP 
P2  M
P3 
C3
P1  MP 
P2  M
P3 
C4
P1  MP 
P2  M
P3 

Table 6
Fuzzy linguistic preference relation decision matrix of four criteria

Goal C1 C2 C3 C4
C1 (0.5, 0.5, 0.5) (0.5, 0.7, 0.9) (0.0, 0.3, 0.7) (0.2, 0.7, 1.2)
C2 (0.1, 0.3, 0.1) (0.5, 0.5, 0.5) (0, 0.1, 0.3) (0.8, 0.5, 0.8)
C3 (0.3, 0.7, 1.0) (0.7, 0.9, 1.0) (0.5, 0.5, 0.5) (0.7, 0.9, 1)
C4 (0.2, 0.3, 0.8) (0.2, 0.5, 0.8) (0, 0.1, 0.3) (0.5, 0.5, 0.5)

Table 7
Transforming results of the four criteria matrix from Table 5

Goal C1 C2 C3 C4 Average Weight


C1 (0.50, 0.50, 0.50) (0.50, 0.64, 0.79) (0.14, 0.36, 0.64) (0.29, 0.64, 1.00) (0.36, 0.54, 0.73) (0.14, 0.27, 0.52)
C2 (0.21, 0.36, 0.50) (0.50, 0.50, 0.50) (0.14, 0.21, 0.36) (0.29, 0.50, 0.71) (0.29, 0.39, 0.52) (0.11, 0.20, 0.37)
C3 (0.36, 0.64, 0.86) (0.64, 0.79, 0.86) (0.50, 0.50, 0.50) (0.64, 0.79, 0.86) (0.54, 0.68, 0.77) (0.21, 0.34, 0.54)
C4 (0.00, 0.36, 0.71) (0.29, 0.50, 0.71) (0.14, 0.21, 0.36) (0.50, 0.50, 0.50) (0.23, 0.39, 0.57) (0.09, 0.20, 0.41)
T.-C. Wang, Y.-H. Chen / Information Sciences 178 (2008) 37553765 3763

Table 8
Fuzzy linguistic preference relation matrix of alternatives in C1

C1 P1 P2 P3
P1 (0.5, 0.5, 0.5) (0.1, 0.3, 0.5) (0.3, 0.1, 0.5)
P2 (0.5, 0.7, 0.9) (0.5, 0.5, 0.5) (0.1, 0.3, 0.5)
P3 (0.5, 0.9, 1.3) (0.5, 0.7, 0.9) (0.5, 0.5, 0.5)

Table 9
Transforming results of the matrix of alternatives in C1

C1 P1 P2 P3 Average Weight
P1 (0.50, 0.50, 0.50) (0.25, 0.38, 0.50) (0.00, 0.25, 0.50) (0.25, 0.38, 0.50) (0.14, 0.25, 0.43)
P2 (0.50, 0.62, 0.75) (0.50, 0.50, 0.50) (0.25, 0.38, 0.50) (0.42, 0.50, 0.58) (0.23, 0.33, 0.50)
P3 (1.00, 0.75, 0.50) (0.50, 0.62, 0.75) (0.50, 0.50, 0.50) (0.50, 0.63, 0.75) (0.27, 0.42, 0.64)

Table 10
Fuzzy linguistic preference relations matrix of alternatives in C2, C3, C4

C2, C3, C4 P1 P2 P3
P1 (0.5, 0.5, 0.5) (0.1, 0.3, 0.5) (0.1, 0.3, 0.7)
P2 (0.5, 0.7, 0.9) (0.5, 0.5, 0.5) (0.3, 0.5, 0.7)
P3 (0.3, 0.7, 1.1) (0.3, 0.5, 0.7) (0.5, 0.5, 0.5)

Table 11
Transforming results of the matrix of alternatives in C2, C3, C4

C2, C3, C4 P1 P2 P3 Average Weight


P1 (0.50, 0.50, 0.50) (0.17, 0.33, 0.50) (0.00, 0.33, 0.67) (0.22, 0.39, 0.56) (0.11, 0.26, 0.53)
P2 (0.50, 0.67, 0.83) (0.50, 0.50, 0.50) (0.33, 0.50, 0.67) (0.44, 0.56, 0.67) (0.23, 0.37, 0.63)
P3 (0.33, 0.67, 1.00) (0.33, 0.50, 0.67) (0.50, 0.50, 0.50) (0.39, 0.56, 0.72) (0.20, 0.37, 0.68)

Table 12
Decision table

P1 P2 P3
C1 (0.14, 0.27, 0.52) (0.14, 0.25, 0.43) (0.23, 0.33, 0.50) (0.27, 0.42, 0.64)
C2 (0.11, 0.20, 0.37) (0.11, 0.26, 0.53) (0.23, 0.37, 0.63) (0.20, 0.37, 0.68)
C3 (0.21, 0.34, 0.54) (0.11, 0.26, 0.53) (0.23, 0.37, 0.63) (0.20, 0.37, 0.68)
C4 (0.09, 0.20, 0.41) (0.11, 0.26, 0.53) (0.23, 0.37, 0.63) (0.20, 0.37, 0.68)
Group integration (0.07, 0.26, 0.92) (0.12, 0.36, 1.09) (0.12, 0.38, 1.23)
Defuzzication 0.41 0.53 0.58

Table 6 lists the fuzzy linguistic preference relation decision matrix for four main criteria. The matrix has entries that
are not included in the interval [0, 1]; thus the following transforming P functions
 are applied:
xL c M c xR c n
f xL 12c ; f xM x12c ; f xR 12c . The average (Ai) in Table 7 is calculated as Ai 1n j1 pij , and the weight (Wi) is
P
calculated as W i Ai = ni1 Ai . Similarly, Tables 8 and 10 present the decision matrices of alternatives determined by applying
each criterion. The entries in Tables 8 and 10 are not included in the interval [0, 1], so these transforming functions convert
Tables 8 and 10 into Tables 9 and 11. Finally, Table 12 shows the results obtained by group integration and defuzzication
using Eq. (10). The ranking of the three alternatives is P3 > P2 > P1. The result of the calculation is the same as in the original
example.

7. Conclusions

In this study, the fuzzy linguistic preference relations are used to derive pairwise comparison matrices. The presented
method is applied to the example employed by Kahraman et al. [30]. The study reveals that the proposed method yields
the same result as that of Kahraman et al., however, we can reduce the number of pairwise comparisons. The illustrative
example involves four criteria requiring three comparison judgments and three alternatives involving two comparisons.
Therefore, the number of pairwise comparisons can be reduced by C 42  3 4  C 32  2 7 times while ensured
3764 T.-C. Wang, Y.-H. Chen / Information Sciences 178 (2008) 37553765

consistency. When the number of criteria or alternatives increases, the number of comparisons required can be reduced by
the method introduced here. For instance, seven criteria require six comparisons, which the number of comparisons can be
reduced by C 72  6 15 times. The method not only enhances the quality of decision making in imprecise or vague envi-
ronments, but also resolves the problem of consistency of the fuzzy AHP. This study provides a set of mechanisms for iden-
tifying consistent fuzzy rankings.
In the future research, we may apply this method to different real-life problems. For example, the proposed method, may
be particularly useful in formulating a national energy policy given the uncertainty and vagueness of information related to
such decisions.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editor, Professor Witold Pedrycz, and the anonymous referees for their constructive
comments and suggestions that led to an improved version of this paper.

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