Fuzzy Method Based on the Removal Effects of Criteria (MEREC) for Determining Objective Weights in Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Problems

In multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) research, the criteria weights are crucial components that significantly impact the results. Many researchers have proposed numerous methods to establish the weights of the criterion. This paper provides a modified technique, the fuzzy method based on the removal effects of criteria (MEREC) by modifying the normalization technique and enhancing the logarithm function used to assess the entire performance of alternatives in the weighting process. Since MCDM problems intrinsically are ambiguous or complex, fuzzy theory is used to interpret the linguistic phrases into triangular fuzzy numbers. The comparative analyses were conducted through the case study of staff performance appraisal at a Malaysian academic institution and the simulation-based study is used to validate the effectiveness and stability of the presented method. The results of the fuzzy MEREC are compared with those from a few different objective weighting techniques based on the correlation coefficients, outlier tests and central processing unit (CPU) time. The results of the comparative analyses demonstrate that fuzzy MEREC weights are verified as the correlation coefficient values are consistent throughout the study. Furthermore, the simulation-based study demonstrates that even in the presence of outliers in the collection of alternatives, fuzzy MEREC is able to offer consistent weights for the criterion. The fuzzy MEREC also requires less CPU time compared to the existing MEREC techniques. Hence, the modified method is a suitable alternative and efficient for computing the objective criteria weights in the MCDM problems.

Automated summary

In this study, a modified fuzzy method, named MEREC, is proposed to evaluate the overall performance of alternatives in the weighting process. The effectiveness and stability of the method are validated through a case study and simulation-based research. The results show that the fuzzy MEREC weights are consistent and stable, even in the presence of outliers, and require less CPU time compared to existing techniques. Therefore, this modified method is a suitable and efficient alternative for computing objective criteria weights in multi-criteria decision-making problems.