Decision making is an important real-world problem where the available alternatives are prioritized and ranked based on one or more criteria to meet a decision goal. In this textbook, the author provides a contemporary introduction to Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM). The book starts with an introduction to decision making problems. It then discusses Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) which is a very popular method for the solution of MCDM problems. The AHP is a structured technique for organizing and analyzing complex decisions. There are several thousand applications of AHP in problems such as planning, resource allocation, priority setting, and selection among alternatives. Besides the above, AHP has been used in the field of forecasting, total quality management, business process re-engineering, etc.
Real-world decision making is often characterized by an uncertain environment. To handle the uncertainties involved in complex decision making problems, fuzzy variants of conventional AHP have been developed. A fuzzy variant of AHP called Chang's Fuzzy AHP has been discussed in the book. Before transitioning to Fuzzy AHP, the concepts of fuzzy sets, fuzzy numbers and fuzzy arithmetic have been reviewed. Solved examples of both conventional and Fuzzy AHP have been included in the book. A program in C language for computing weights from fuzzy pairwise comparison matrices has also been included. Finally, a chapter has been included on Further Reading which provides pointers for further study and development of the subject. The book concludes with an extensive bibliography on the subject for the interested readers.