Relaxed Rank Order Centroid Weighting MCDM Method With Improved Grey Relational Analysis for Subcontractor Selection: Photothermal Power Station Construction

This article addresses the problem of subcontractor selection in an uncertain decision-making environment by proposing a new hybrid method and improving a classical multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) method. First, the proposed hybrid method combines subjective and objective weighting methods to estimate the weights of criteria that are represented as grey numbers. The subjective weighting method is the PA weighting method. The objective weighting method is the rank order centroid with slacks (ROCS) weighting method used to compensate for the limitation of the rank order centroid weighting method. Second, grey relational analysis (GRA) is improved by introducing both positive and negative reference (PNR) alternatives instead of a single reference alternative as in the classical GRA. Subsequently, the proposed hybrid grey-point allocation-ROCS weighting method and the GRA-PNR evaluation method are applied to select the most suitable subcontractor for the supply of heliostats for photothermal power station construction. Sensitivity analysis is conducted to verify the robustness of the results. Finally, the technique for order preferences by similarity to an ideal solution with grey values, simple additive weighting with grey relations, and additive ratio assessment with grey criteria scores is applied to validate the participation of the selected subcontractor in the project.

Automated summary

This article proposes a new hybrid method and improves a classical multicriteria decision-making method for subcontractor selection in an uncertain decision-making environment. The proposed method estimates the weights of criteria using a combination of subjective and objective weighting methods. Grey relational analysis is improved by introducing both positive and negative reference alternatives. The proposed methods are applied to select a subcontractor for the supply of heliostats for photothermal power station construction, and sensitivity analysis is conducted to verify the results.