Multi-criteria decision making method based on possibility degree of interval type-2 fuzzy number

This paper proposes a new approach based on possibility degree to solve multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problems in which the criteria value takes the form of interval type-2 fuzzy number. First, a new expected value function is defined and an optimal model based on maximizing deviation method is constructed to obtain weight coefficients when criteria weight information is partially known. Then, the overall value of each alternative is calculated by the defined aggregation operators. Furthermore, a new possibility degree, which is proposed to overcome some drawbacks of the existing methods, is introduced for comparisons between the overall values of alternatives to construct a possibility degree matrix. Based on the constructed matrix, all of the alternatives are ranked according to the ranking vector derived from the matrix, and the best one is selected. Finally, the proposed method is applied to a case study on the overseas minerals investment for one of the largest multi-species nonferrous metals companies in China and the results demonstrate the feasibility of the method. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.