Determination of Priority Weights under Multiattribute Decision-Making Situations: AHP versus Fuzzy AHP

The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach has been widely applied in multiattribute decision-making situations since being introduced in 1980. It has been believed that the AHP is appropriate to assist decision-making problems characterized by a number of interrelated factors. Recently, a derivative of the AHP, the so-called fuzzy AHP, has been developed by mixing AHP with a fuzzy set theory. This new method increasingly extends its application areas in construction management. Despite extensive use of the fuzzy AHP, little research has been conducted as to the comparability of calculated priority weight vectors by the fuzzy AHP with those by the traditional AHP. Therefore, this paper mainly focuses on the comparison of two AHP approaches by investigating weight vectors produced from a real case study. From the previous studies, four different fuzzy AHP approaches are prepared by applying different fuzzy fundamental scales and weight aggregations, and are tested to identify which method produces the most comparable results with the traditional AHP. The main findings and results obtained from the four approaches are presented and discussed in detail. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.