Analytic hierarchy prioritization process in the AHP application development: A prioritization operator selection approach

In the analytic hierarchy process, prioritization of the reciprocal matrix is a core issue to influence the final decision choice. Various prioritization methods have been proposed, but none of prioritization methods performs better than others in every inconsistent case. To address the prioritation operator selection problem, this paper proposes the analytic hierarchy prioritization process, which is an objective hierarchy model ( without using subjective pairwise comparisons) to approximate the real priority vectors with selection of the most appropriate prioritization operator among the various prioritization candidates, for a reciprocal matrix, and on the basis of a list of measurement criteria. Nine important prioritization operators and seven measurement criteria are illustrated in AHPP. Two previous applications are revised and illustrate the validity and usability of the proposed model. The results show that the most appropriate prioritization operator is dependent of the content of the reciprocal matrix and AHPP is an appropriate method to address the prioritization problem to make better decisions. (C) 2009 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.