A method for multiple attribute decision making with incomplete weight information in linguistic setting

The aim of this paper is to investigate the multiple attribute decision making problems with linguistic information, in which the information about attribute weights is incompletely known, and the attribute values take the form of linguistic variables. We first introduce some approaches to obtaining the weight information of attributes, and then establish an optimization model based on the ideal point of attribute values, by which the attribute weights can be determined. For the special situations where the information about attribute weights is completely unknown, we establish another optimization model. By solving this model, we get a simple and exact formula, which can be used to determine the attribute weights. We utilize the numerical weighting linguistic average (NWLA) operator to aggregate the linguistic variables corresponding to each alternative, and then rank the alternatives by means of the aggregated linguistic information. Finally, the developed method is applied to the ranking and selection of propulsion/manoeuvring system of a double-ended passenger ferry. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.