Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Multicriterion Decision Making'

The problem of selecting a multicriterion decision making (MCDM) technique for watershed resources management is investigated. Of explicit concern in this research is the matching of a watersned resources management problem with an appropriate MCDM technique. More than seventy techniques are recognized while reviewing the area of MCDM. A new classification scheme is developed to categorize these techniques into four groups on the bases of each algorithm's structural formulation and the possible results obtained by using the algorithm. Other standard classification schemes are also discussed to better understand the differences and similarities among the techniques and thereby demonstrate the importance of matching a particular multicriterion decision problem with an appropriate MCDM technique. The desire for selecting the most appropriate MCDM technique for watershed resources management lead to the development of 49 technique choice criteria and an algorithm for selecting a technique. The algorithm divides the technique choice criteria into four groups: (1) DM/analyst-related criteria, (2) technique-related criteria, (3) problem-related criteria and (4) solution-related criteria. To analyze the applicability of MCDM techniques to a particular problem, the levels of performance of the techniques in solving the problem are, at first, evaluated with respect to the choice criteria in each criterion group resulting in four sets of preference rankings. These four sets are then linearly combined using a set of trade-off parameters to determine the overall preference ranking of the techniques. The MUM technique selection process is itself modeled as a multiobjective problem. In this research, for example, a set of 15 techniques, the author is familiar with, are analyzed for their appropriateness to solve a watershed resources management problem. The performance levels of the 15 MCDM techniques in solving such a problem are evaluated with respect to a selected set of technique choice criteria in each criterion group leading to a set of four evaluation matrices of choice criteria versus alternative techniques. This technique choice problem is then analyzed using a two-stage evaluation procedure known as composite programming. The final product of the process resulted in a preference ranking of the alternative MCDM techniques.

The performance of the century-old irrigation system of Pakistan (i.e. warabandi) has been evaluated using socio-economic data gathered by the author in multiple farmers?? surveys (n=278) conducted in Indus Basin of Pakistan. In the surveyed regions, the warabandi system was performing poorly. In-built rigidity in water allocations was found as main reason behind its poor performance. The results from the farmers?? surveys also revealed that the objective of increasing irrigation water productivity would never be attained under the warabandi arrangements. Hence, a completely new concept that could replace the warabandi system and improve the productivity of limited irrigation water should be introduced. My aim was to find a better way to allocate the scarce water resource between farmers. In this study, I have introduced a new concept for determining water allocations among the farmers, which is based on a multicriterion decision making (MCDM) approach. The consideration of multiple criteria in irrigation water allocations would improve irrigation water productivity. Upon an extensive survey of well-known MCDM methods, I concluded that all previously existing MCDM methods were using subjective inputs, usually from a single modeller, to establish priorities of alternatives and therefore, a predetermined solution could easily be obtained. I have developed an approach based on conjoint analysis which removes that subjectivity from the chosen MCDM method (i.e. ELECTRE). Interval scales and relative importance criteria weights, two usually subjective inputs in ELECTRE, are objectively estimated from the conjoint analysis study. For that purpose, the author designed a conjoint questionnaire and administered it to 62 farmer respondents in face-to-face interviews. Conjoint analysis, which does not appear to have been previously used in water resources or allocation studies, is a method for creating the interval scales and the relative criteria weights objectively from the respondents?? judgements on the importance of conjoint objects. The objective estimation of these two important factors is a completely new development which can assist in the unbiased determination of the best division or allocation of scarce water resources between farmers. The approach is applied, as a demonstration, to a region with nine distributary watercourses to determine which of the distributaries should have the highest priority for allocation of the regional water.

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores
The main objective of this dissertation is to perform a Comparative Analysis of different Multicriteria Decision Making Methods applied to real-world problems, in order to produce relevant information to enable the incorporation of those methods on computational platforms. The current document presents a simple case study concerning a decision support application targeted for a real problem regarding retrofitting alternatives of a building with energy efficiency impact. The application process was started with the selection of two Multicriteria Decision Making Methods guided by a preexisting framework, and resulted in the choice of AHP and PROMETHEE II methodologies. These two methods were then combined with three different decision maker profiles (Conservative, Moderate and Aggressive) created by means of risk assessment profiling techniques for portfolio allocation. Afterwards, the chosen decision criteria were disposed in a Risk Pyramid according to their inherent level of risk regarding project evaluation. A match was then performed between the decision maker profiles and each criterion, so as to define a proper set of weights for the decision criteria and preference functions, with corresponding preference and indifference thresholds. Finally, three different sets of results (one for each decision maker profile) were produced using appropriate software, and a Sensitivity Analysis was performed over the criteria to understand their influence on the solution. The general conclusion of this Comparative Analysis is that the increase in the preference modelling ability of the methods brings up the least expected alternatives as recommendations for the decision maker. Besides, we have concluded that the decision profiles that allocate bigger weights to the riskiest criteria are the ones that produce the more dispersed set of results within each method application and within each decision maker profile.

Includes bibliography.
The aim of this study was the design and implementation of an interactive decision support system, assisting a single decision maker in reaching a satisfactory decision when faced by a multicriteria decision making problem. There are clearly two components involved in designing such a system, namely the concept of decision support systems (DSS) and the area of multicriteria decision making (MCDM). The multicriteria decision making environment as well as the definitions of the multicriteria decision making concepts used, are discussed in chapter 1. Chapter 2 gives a brief historical review on MCDM, highlighting the origins of some of the more well-known methods for solving MCDM problems. A detailed discussion of interactive decision making is also given. Chapter 3 is concerned with the DSS concept, including a historical review thereof, a framework for the design of a DSS, various development approaches as well as the components constituting a decision support system. In chapter 4, the possibility of integrating the two concepts, MCDM and DSS, are discussed. A detailed discussion of various methodologies for solving MCDM problems is given in chapter 5. Specific attention is given to identifying the methodologies to be implemented in the DSS. Chapter 6 can be seen as a theoretical description of the system developed, while Chapter 7 is concerned with the evaluation procedures used for testing the system. A final summary and concluding remarks are given in Chapter 8.

Thesis (M.Phil.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2005.
"Submitted to Department of Building and Construction in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy" Includes bibliographical references (leaves 239-241)

Bibliography: leaves 142-149.
The nature of human decision making dictates that a decision must often be considered under conditions of uncertainty. Decisions may be influenced by uncertain future events, doubts regarding the precision of inputs, doubts as to what the decision maker considers important, and many other forms of uncertainty. The multicriteria decision models that are designed to facilitate and aid decision making must therefore consider these uncertainties if they are to be effective. In this thesis, we consider the treatment of uncertainty in multicriteria decision making (MCDM), with a specific view to investigating the types of uncertainty that are most relevant to MCDM, [and] how the uncertainties identified as relevant may be treated by various different MCDM methodologies.

Ingeniera Civil Industrial
El presente estudio tiene por objetivo desarrollar e implementar una metodología de priorización de infraestructura hidráulica de riego, de forma que los proyectos de embalses sean estudiados y evaluados en su contexto. Para la elaboración de la herramienta de priorización, se utilizó el método MCDM, el cual corresponde a un enfoque que permite comparar alternativas en base a múltiples atributos y características. Entre los métodos estudiados, se optó por la metodología AHP para determinar los ponderadores, ya que permite incluir, de forma simultánea, características cuantitativas y cualitativas dentro de un mismo modelo. Se desarrolló un modelo con 5 niveles de criterios y subcriterios. En el primer nivel se especifica el objetivo del estudio. En el segundo nivel jerárquico, se consideran los criterios macro, los cuales corresponden a factores de desarrollo y estratégicos. Los criterios de desarrollo están asociados directamente con las características de los proyectos en sí y los criterios estratégicos corresponden a aspectos políticos y administrativos. En el tercer nivel se identifican los factores económico, social y ambiental. El subcriterio económico busca medir las rentabilidades y riesgos del modelo, el subcriterio social incluye los impactos que este tipo de obras tienen sobre las comunidades y el subcriterio ambiental buscar medir el impacto que tienen los embalses en el territorio donde estos se localizan. Este modelo fue aplicado en cuatro proyectos de embalses, a través del cual se obtuvo un Índice Multi-Criterio (IMC), donde a mayor IMC, mayor prioridad tiene el proyecto. Los resultados obtenidos son: en primer lugar el Embalse A, seguido del Embalse C, luego se encuentra el Embalse B y, en último lugar se encuentra el Embalse D. Los resultados muestran que los métodos multicriterio de priorización permiten incluir características cualitativas y cuantitativas de forma simultánea en un modelo. Sin embargo, es necesario perfeccionar este tipo de metodologías en aspectos tales como la selección de criterios, subcriterios e indicadores, de forma que los proyectos de embalses no sean sub o sobre valorados. Adicional a esto, para la correcta aplicación de la metodología multicriterio, es necesario disponer de información actualizada tanto de los proyectos, como de las comunidades y territorio donde estos se localizan.

Bibliography: leaves 131-136.
This dissertation investigates the application of Multicriteria Decision Making (MCDM) methodologies to the area of scenario based policy planning. We examine how the tools of MCDM can be used to develop a Decision Support System (DSS) that would allow management or policy planners to resolve conflicting goals and interests. Ideally, the resolution would be obtained by the various decision makers (DMs) in such a manner, that it satisfies all the relevant interest groupings at a maximum level of achievement for all concerned. This is not always possible and compromises need to be made that are fair and equitable to all the relevant interests. Stewart et al. (1993), in a report entitled: "Scenario Based Multicriteria Policy Planning for Water Management in South Africa", develop the principles of a procedure for implementing scenario based multicriteria policy planning. Their iterative procedure is illustrated in figure 2.1, chapter 2, of this paper. In this dissertation, we refine certain parts of this procedure and the two areas in particular that we have looked at are: (1) filtering a large set of policy scenarios (Background Set), that could be a continuum, to form a smaller set (Foreground Set), and (2) further reducing the smaller set to form a solution set of policy scenarios. (The generic terms "Background Set" and "Foreground Set" are defined in section 2.1 of chapter 2.) The main objectives of this study were therefore mainly twofold and are as follows: (1) to determine what MCDM methods are relevant to natural resources management (using water as a case study), and (2) to investigate how these methods need to be adopted for use in an interactive DSS. We address the first objective by surveying the literature in an attempt to identify potential MCDM approaches that are suitable to (i) reduce a large set of alternatives, analogous to the Background Set, to a more manageable smaller set, analogous to the Foreground Set of alternatives, and (ii) refine this Foreground Set in order to present the DMs with a solution set of alternatives from which University of Cape Town they will make their final selection. The literature has until now not dealt explicitly with these two issues and we had to adapt certain MCDM approaches, many of which have been developed in a linear programming context, to suit our purposes.

A aplicação de metodologias de análise multicriterial já é utilizada há décadas para análise de investimentos de alto capital, e continuam sendo ferramentas de referência para tomadas de decisão nas organizações em todo mundo. Contudo, não só grandes investimentos são influênciados por variáveis que interagem entre si e precisam ser levadas em consideração numa tomada de decisão acertada. No dia-a-dia de uma empresa, em diversos setores, decisões de menores impactos são tomadas sem que um método de análise multicriterial seja adotado para tal escolha. No entanto, quando somadas, essas decisões de menores impactos acabam por influênciar no resultado geral da empresa. O objetivo dessa pesquisa foi desenvolver um método ágil de análise multicriterial que possa ser facilmente adaptado e aplicado em processos operacionais dinâmicos, comuns na rotina de grandes empresas, auxiliando nas tomadas de decisões em níveis mais baixos da organização. O método proposto foi aplicado em dois diferentes processos de uma empresa multinacional do setor de mineração. No primeiro processo foi avaliada a priorização da implantação de projetos de melhoria, onde ideias de empregados são transformadas em projetos que geram ganhos para a empresa. No segundo processo de programação da manutenção, o método auxiliou na priorização da execução de serviços de manutenção quando existem limitações de recursos. O método proposto combina a utilização de ferramentas de diversos métodos já consagrados com a adoção de soluções criativas para atender a dinamicidade dos processos avaliados.
Multicriteria analysis methodologies have been used for decades to analyze substantial capital investment alternatives, and continue to be a reference tool for capital budgeting decision making in organizations. Small investments are also influenced by several variables that need to be taken into account in assertive decision making. Minor impacts decisions are taken without using a method of multicriteria analysis and when all this decisions are combined, they influence the overall result of the company. The objective of this research is to develop a multi-criteria analysis method agile that can be easily adapted and applied to different operation dynamic process, usual in large businesses routine, helping decision making at lower levels of the organization. The proposed method was applied in two different processes of a multinational company in the mining sector. In the first case the process of prioritization projects method was studied, where ideas of employees were transformed into smaller projects that generate profit for the company. In the second case, maintenance scheduling, the method helped to prioritize the execution of maintenance services when there are resource limitation. The proposed method combines tools of renowned methods with creative solutions to help a decision making in dynamics processes.

According to the IPCC (2007) fourth assessment report, small islands and coastal communities have a set of characteristics that makes them very vulnerable to climate change impacts, mainly sea-level rise and storm surges. Coastal hazards including inundation, salinisation of the water supply, and erosion threaten vital infrastructure that support coastal communities. Although Canada has the longest coastline in the world, little work has been done on impacts of climate change and adaptation to these impacts in the Canadian coastal zones. This research is part of an International Community-University Research Alliance (ICURA) C-Change, project to develop a multicriteria decision evaluation and support for the systems analysis of adaptation options for coastal communities toward adapting to environmental changes. This study estimates the vulnerability of coastal communities with respect to their environmental, economic, social, and cultural dimensions. It also applies a group version of the Analytical Hierarchy Process for identifying decisions that various stakeholders make on suggested adaptation strategies. This study develops a methodological framework that is applicable to various coastal and small island contexts. The application of the proposed framework is further discussed in a case study conducted on the communities of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (PEI), and Little Anse on Isle Madame, Nova Scotia. Specifically, the state of the Little Anse breakwater is analyzed and new adaptation options are presented and evaluated. This research has illustrated and applied a process of decision evaluation and support that explicitly engages multiple participants and critieria in complex problems situations involving environmental change in coastal communities.

Continuous development has been occurring in the area of decision support systems. Modern systems focus on applying decision models that can provide intelligent support to the decision maker. These systems focus on modelling the human reasoning process in situations requiring decision. This task may be achieved by using an appropriate decision model. Multicriteria decision making (MCDM) is a common decision making approach. This research investigates and seeks a way to resolve various issues associated with the application of this model. MCDM is a formal and systematic decision making approach that evaluates a given set of alternatives against a given set of criteria. The global evaluation of alternatives is determined through the process of aggregation. It is well established that the aggregation process should consider the importance of criteria while determining the overall worth of an alternative. The importance of individual criteria and of sub-sets of the criteria affects the global evaluation. The aggregation also needs to consider the importance of the sub-set of criteria. Most decision problems involve dependent criteria and the interaction between the criteria needs to be modelled. Traditional aggregation approaches, such as weighted average, do not model the interaction between the criteria. Non-additive measures such as fuzzy measures model the interaction between the criteria. However, determination of non-additive measures in a practical application is problematic. Various approaches have been proposed to resolve the difficulty in acquisition of fuzzy measures. These approaches mainly propose use of past precedents. This research extends this notion and proposes an approach based on similarity-based reasoning. Solutions to the past problems can be used to solve the new decision problems. This is the central idea behind the proposed methodology. The methodology itself applies the theory of reasoning by analogy for solving MCDM problems. This methodology uses a repository of cases of past decision problems. This case base is used to determine the fuzzy measures for the new decision problem. This work also analyses various similarity measures. The illustration of the proposed methodology in a case-based decision support system shows that interactive models are suitable tools for determining fuzzy measures in a given decision problem. This research makes an important contribution by proposing a similarity-based approach for acquisition of fuzzy measures.

The complexity of financial analysis, particularly on selection process or decision making problems, has increased rapidly over several decades. As a result, much attention has been focused on developing and implementing the efficient mathematical models for supporting this kind of problems. Multiple criteria decision analysis, an advanced field of operations research provides analysts or decision makers a broad range of methodologies, which are all suited to the complexity of financial decision analysis. In the financial modeling, uncertainty problems are inevitable, owing to the fact that the consequences of events are not precisely known. In addition, human judgments as part of analysis also contribute to it intricacy. Correspondingly, many studies have been concentrated on integrating uncertainty theories in modeling the real financial problems. One area of interest is on the inclusion of the element of human behavior or attitudinal character of decision makers. Aggregation operator in this case can offer a wide spectrum of analysis or flexibility in modeling the human behavior in financial decision analysis. In general, the main purpose of this work is on the study of financial selection problems from the perspective of decision analysis, uncertainty theories and aggregation operators. To be specific, the decision problems under a finite or discrete case and multidimensional factors are studied. The emphasis is given on the group decision making models, notably, the Dempster-Shafer theory (DST) of belief structure, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). Moreover, the uncertainty theories based on fuzzy set theory and imprecise probability are employed, together with information fusion based on the ordered weighted average (OWA) operators. Quantitative and qualitative preferences, decision strategies based on the attitudinal character of decision makers, and majority concepts for group consensus are highlighted. The specific contributions of this work are summarized as the following: • The first contribution is on developing the multi-expert multi-criteria decision making (ME-MCDM) model with respect to two-stage aggregation processes. In specific, the aggregation of criteria is based on the integration of weighted arithmetic mean (WA) and OWA. The main attention is given on the proposed alternative OWAWA operator as an extension of immediate WA and OWAWA operators. Two approaches for modeling the majority opinion of experts are studied, in which based on the induced OWA (IOWA) operators. Some modifications to the support functions are suggested as to derive the order inducing variables. The analysis of ME-MCDM model based on these aggregation processes then is conducted. In this study the selection of investment strategy is used as to exemplify the model. • The weighted-selective aggregated majority-OWA operator may be considered as the second contribution. It is as an extension of the SAM-OWA operator, where the reliability of information sources is considered. The WSAM-OWA then is generalized to the quantified WSAM-OWA by incorporating the concept of linguistic quantifier, mainly for the group fusion strategy. The QWSAM-IOWA with an ordering step is proposed for the individual fusion strategy. These aggregation operators are then implemented to the case of alternative scheme of heterogeneous group decision analysis, in particular for a selection of investment problem. • Third contribution is represented by the development of linguistic group decision making with Dempster-Shafer belief structure. Different type of linguistic aggregation operator such as the 2-tuple induced linguistic OWA operator is suggested. Specifically, it is based on order-inducing variables in which the ordering of the arguments and uncertain situations can be assessed with linguistic information. Then, by using the 2-TILOWA in the D-S framework, the belief structure-2-TILOWA operator can be formed. Some of its main properties are studied. This model is applied in a selection of financial strategies. • The extension of AHP for group decision making model is given as the fourth contribution, notably, based on the inclusion of IOWA operators. Two-stage aggregation processes used in the AHP-GDM model are extended. Firstly, a generalization of weighted maximal entropy OWA under the IOWA operator is proposed as to aggregate the criteria. Further, the majority concept based on the IOWA and Minkowski OWA-based similarity measure is suggested to determine a consensus among experts. This model provides a variant of decision strategies for analyzing the individual and the majority of experts. The application in investment selection problem is presented to test the reliability of the model. • The fifth contribution is on the integration of heavy ordered weighted geometric (HOWG) aggregation operators in AHP-GDM model. In the sense of heavy OWA operator (HOWA), the heavy weighted geometric (HWG) and HOWG are introduced as extensions of the normal weighted geometric mean (WG) and the OWG by relaxing the constraints on the associated weighting vector. These HWG and HOWG operators then are utilized in the aggregation process of AHP-GDM, specifically on the aggregation of individual judgments procedure. The main advantage of the model, besides the complete overlapping of information such in classical methods, is that it can also accommodate partial and non-overlapping information in the formulation. An investment selection problem is applied to demonstrate the model. • The extension of TOPSIS for group decision making model by the inclusion of majority concept may be considered as the sixth contribution. The majority concept is derived based on the induced generalized OWA (IGOWA) operators. Two fusion schemes in TOPSIS model are designed. First, an external fusion scheme to aggregate the experts’ judgments with respect to the concept of majority opinion on each criterion is suggested. Then, an internal fusion scheme of ideal and anti-ideal solutions that represents the majority of experts is proposed using the Minkowski OWA distance measures. The comparison of the proposed model with some other TOPSIS models with respect to distance measures is presented. Here, a general case of selection problem is presented, specifically on the human resource selection problem. • Finally, the group decision making model based on conflicting bifuzzy sets (CBFS) is proposed. Precisely, the subjective judgments of experts, mainly from positive and negative aspects are considered simultaneously in the analysis. Moreover, the weighting method for the attribute (or sub-attribute) is subject to the integration of subjective and objective weights. The synthesis of CBFS in the model is naturally done by extending the fuzzy evaluation in parallel with the intuitionistic fuzzy set. A new technique to compute the similarity measure is proposed, in which, being the degree of agreement between the experts. The model then is applied in the case study of flood control project selection problem. To sum up, the presented thesis dealt with the extension of multi-criteria decision analysis models for the financial selection problems (as a specific scope) and also the general selection problems with the inclusion of attitudinal character, majority concept and fuzzy set theory. In particular, the group decision making model, Dempster-Shafer belief structure, AHP and TOPSIS are proposed to overcome the shortcoming of the existing models, i.e., related to the financial decision analysis. The applicability and robustness of the developed models have been demonstrated and some sensitivity analyses are also provided. The main advantages of the proposed models are to provide a more general and flexible models for a wider analysis of the decision problems.
La tesis, a través del análisis y desarrollo del Análisis de decisiones, Teorías de incertidumbre y Operadores de agregación, busca contribuir al estado del arte y nuevas propuesta de las necesidades y demandas que los decisores, responsables o e inversores financieros se encuentran por la creciente complejidad de sus análisis y estrategias, sobre todo en los procesos de selección o en los problemas de decisión. Así, el objetivo principal de esta tesis es el estudio de los problemas de selección financiera desde la perspectiva del análisis de decisiones, las teorías de la incertidumbre y los operadores de agregación. En concreto, se estudian los problemas de decisión en virtud de un conjunto finito de alternativas (caso discreto) y de factores multidimensionales. En el trabajo se desarrolla una extensión de los modelos de análisis de decisiones multicriterio y multiexperto que se utilizan en la resolución de los problemas de selección financiera (como ámbito específico), pero también en los problemas de selección generales, con la inclusión del carácter actitudinal, el concepto de mayoría y la teoría de los conjuntos borrosos. En particular, el énfasis se sitúa en los modelos de toma de decisiones en grupo y en la estructura de creencias Dempster-Shafer (D-S), el proceso analítico jerárquico (AHP) i la técnica de orden de preferencia por similitud con la solución ideal (TOPSIS). Además, se aplican las teorías de incertidumbre basadas en conjuntos borrosos y de probabilidades imprecisas juntamente con la fusión de la información basada en operadores OWA. También se destaca las preferencias cuantitativas y cualitativas, las estrategias de decisión basadas en el carácter actitudinal de los decisores, y el concepto de mayoría en el consenso grupal, de forma que se propone el desarrollo de operadores OWA, la generalización de los modelos AHP y TOPSIS, juntamente con el modelo de toma de decisiones grupal y la estructura de creencias Dempster-Shafer, con el fin de superar las deficiencias de los modelos existentes en relación con el análisis de decisiones financieras. En particular, la investigación realizada se puede sintetizar en siete aportaciones específicas al state-of-the-art del Análisis de decisiones y los operadores de agregación, con aplicaciones en diferentes problemas de decisión financiera: 1. Operadores de agregación basados en los OWA en los modelos de decisión Multiexpertos y Multicriterio. 2. Operadores ponderados SAM-OWA y su aplicación en modelos GDM con operadores lingüísticos. 3. Modelos GDM con operadores lingüísticos adaptados a la teoría de Dempster-Shafer con la aplicación de operadores de agregación inducidos lingüísticos. 4. Generalización del modelo AHP para decisiones grupales usando operadores OWA inducidos. 5. Introducción de operadores OWA geométricos y pesados en los modelos GDM y AHP. 6. Ampliación de los modelos TOPSIS con operadores de agregación basados en los OWA. 7. Desarrollo y aplicación del Conflicting bifuzzy a modelos de decisión MAGDM En la tesis se demuestra la aplicabilidad y la robustez de los modelos desarrollados, tanto con un esquema de agregación de expertos clásicos como con un esquema alternativo que separa por criterios de decisión. Las principales ventajas de los modelos propuestos son que se tratan modelos más generales y flexibles para un análisis más amplio de los problemas de decisión, en particular de los de selección financiera, que incorporen diversos criterios, expertos y componentes de incertidumbre y lingüísticos.

The shift in mindset of decision makers, from maintenance being a “necessary evil” and “cost centre” to a “profit contributor” in manufacturing companies has driven outsourced maintenance suppliers to employ value-centric approaches in order to design more effective maintenance programs. A value assessment for maintenance outsourcing must facilitate the trade-off between cost-centric and value-centric approaches to enable the maintenance service providers to design more effective maintenance organizations. This assessment should also help the customers in a well informed decision making in outsourcing their maintenance function in order to add value to their businesses. Therefore the aim of this research is to develop a decision making framework for maintenance outsourcing based on the assessed customer-value of outsourced maintenance services. Cont/d.

Le doctorat impliqués la recherche dans le domaine des représentations visuelles assistées par des technologies sémantiques et des ontologies afin de soutenir les décisions et les procédures d'élaboration des politiques, dans le cadre de la recherche et des systèmes d'information académique. Les visualisations seront également prises en charge par l'exploration de données et les processus d'extraction de connaissances dans l'environnement de données liées. Pour élaborer, les techniques d'analyse visuelle seront utilisées pour l'organisation des visualisations afin de présenter l'information de manière à utiliser les capacités perceptuelles humaines et aideront éventuellement les procédures de prise de décision et de prise de décision. En outre, la représentation visuelle et, par conséquent, les processus décisionnels et décisionnels seront améliorés au moyen des technologies sémantiques basées sur des modèles conceptuels sous forme d'ontologies. Ainsi, l'objectif principal de la thèse de doctorat proposée consiste en la combinaison des technologies sémantiques clés et des techniques de visualisation interactive basées principalement sur la perception du graphique afin de rendre les systèmes de prise de décision plus efficaces. Le domaine de la demande sera le système de recherche et d'information académique
The dissertation herein involves research in the field of the visual representations aided by semantic technologies and ontologies in order to support decisions and policy making procedures, in the framework of research and academic information systems. The visualizations will be also supported by data mining and knowledge extraction processes in the linked data environment. To elaborate, visual analytics’ techniques will be employed for the organization of the visualizations in order to present the information in such a way that will utilize the human perceptual abilities and that will eventually assist the decision support and policy making procedures. Furthermore, the visual representation and consequently the decision and policy making processes will be ameliorated by the means of the semantic technologies based on conceptual models in the form of ontologies. Thus, the main objective of the proposed doctoral thesis consists the combination of the key semantic technologies with interactive visualisations techniques based mainly on graph’s perception in order to make decision support systems more effective. The application field will be the research and academic information systems

Hoy en día, los controladores proporcionales integrales y proporcionales integrales derivativos son los algoritmos de control más utilizado en la industria. Por otra parte, los controladores fraccionarios han recibido atención recientemente, por parte de la comunidad científica y desde el punto de vista industrial. Debido a esto, en esta tesis algunos de los escenarios implican la sintonización de estos controladores mediante el procedimiento de diseño mediante la optimización multi-objetivo. Este procedimiento se centra en proporcionar un equilibrio razonable entre los objetivos en conflicto y brinda al diseñador la posibilidad de apreciar la comparación de los objetivos de diseño. Esta tesis se divide en tres partes. La primera parte, presenta los fundamentos del sistema de control y discusión de los diferentes compromisos: entre los modos de operación servo / regulación y del rendimiento / robustez. Por otro lado, se ha proporcionado un marco conceptual acerca de la optimización multi-objetivo. La segunda parte, introduce la solución de Nash como una técnica de selección multi-criterio, para seleccionar un punto del frente de Pareto, que represente el mejor compromiso entre los objetivos de diseño. Esta solución es una selección semi-automática escogida en la aproximación del frente de Pareto y ofrece un buen compromiso entre los objetivos de diseño. Luego, se presenta el Multi-stage approach para el proceso de optimización multi-objetivo. Este enfoque implica dos algoritmos: un algoritmo determinista y algoritmo evolutivo. En el cual ambos algoritmos se complementen entre sí a pesar de sus desventajas y mejoran los resultados de la optimización en términos de convergencia y precisión. Además, se introduce el objetivo basado en la fiabilidad, en la descripción del problema multi-objetivo, este se utiliza para medir la degradación del rendimiento. Vale la pena mencionar que, debido a la existencia de incertidumbres en el diseño y fabricación, teniendo este objetivo de diseño le dará otra perspectiva al diseñador en el mundo real. Con el fin de validar el método, dos casos de estudios se ha considerado, el problema de control de la caldera (The Boiler Control Benchmark) para la sintonización de controladores y como segundo caso, una pila Peltier nolineal. Por último, la tercera parte de esta tesis, presentan las contribuciones a la sintonización de controladores. En primer lugar, se propone un conjunto de reglas de sintonía basado en la solución de Nash para un controlador proporcional-integral, en donde la robustez / rendimiento han sido considerados. Por otra parte, como un segundo caso se presenta las reglas de sintonía para un controlador proporcional-integral-derivativo, donde se han considerado el compromiso de robustez/rendimiento y los modos de operación servo / regulación. Además, se proponen reglas de sintonía para el controlador proporcional-integral-derivativo-fraccional-orden implementado el Multi-stage approach para la optimización multi-objetivo.
Nowadays, the proportional integral and proportional integral derivatives are the most used control algorithm in the industry. Moreover, the fractional controllers have received attention recently for both, the research community and from the industrial point of view. Owing to this, in this thesis some of the scenarios involve the tuning of these controllers by using the Multiobjective Optimization Design procedure. This procedure focuses on providing reasonable trade-off among the conflictive objectives and brings the designer the possibility to appreciate the comparison of the design objectives. This thesis is divided in three parts. The first part, presented the fundamentals of the control system showing and discussing the different trade-offs between performance/robustness and servo/regulation operation modes. On the other hand a background on multi-objective optimization has been provided. The second part, introduces the Nash solution as a multi-criteria decision making technique, to select a point from the Pareto front that represent the best compromise among the design objective. This solution provides a semi-automatic selection from the Pareto front approximation and offers a good trade-off between the goal objectives. Hereafter, a Multi-stage approach for the multi-objective optimization process is presented. This approach involves two algorithms: a deterministic and evolutionary algorithm. In which both algorithms complement each other in despite of their drawbacks and improve the results of the overall optimization in terms of convergence and accuracy. Further, the introduction of reliability based objective into the multi-objective problem is carried out, to measure the performance degradation. It is worthwhile to mention that, due to the existence of uncertainties in real-world designing and manufacturing having this design objective will give another perspective to the designer. In order to validate the approach, two different case studies has been considered, the Boiler control problem for controller tuning and as second case, a non-linear Peltier Cell. Finally, the third part of this thesis, the contributions on controller tuning have been presented. First, a set of tuning rules based on the NS for a proportional-integral (PI) controller have been devised, where the robustness/performance trade-off have been considered. Moreover, as a second case it is presented a tuning for proportional-integral-derivative controller where the trade-off of the performance/robustness and servo/regulation operation mode has been considered. Moreover, the fractional-order-proportional-integral-derivative controller is tuned by using the Multi-stage approach for the MOO process.

This study is conducted with the aims to develop a new ranking method for multi-criteria decision making problem with conflicting criteria. Such a problem has a set of Pareto solutions, where the act of improving a value of one solution will result in depreciating some of the others. Thus, in this type of problem, there is no unique solution. However, out of many available options, the Decision Maker eventually has to choose only one solution. With this problem as the motivation, the current study develops a compromise ranking algorithm, namely a trade-off ranking method. The trade-off ranking method able to give a trade-off solution with the least compromise compared to other choices as the best solution. The properties of the algorithm are studied in the thesis on several test cases. The proposed method is compared against several multi-criteria decision making methods with ranking based on the distance measure, which are the TOPSIS, relative distance and VIKOR. The sensitivity analysis and uncertainty test are carried out to examine the methods robustness. A critical criteria analysis is also done to test for the most critical criterion in a multi-criteria problem. The decision making method is considered further in a fuzzy environment problem where the fuzzy trade-off ranking is developed and compared against existing fuzzy decision making methods.

A competitividade de uma organização e, consequentemente, sua prosperidade perante concorridos mercados, depende muito da capacidade de inovação e aprimoramento de seus produtos/serviços e processos. A procura por melhores padrões de manufatura e serviços prestados aos clientes, além das aplicações de novas técnicas gerenciais, de melhoria contínua, de otimização e de tomada de decisão, têm atraído a atenção das organizações. O esforço criativo humano deve propor abordagens de caráter competitivo, combinando ferramentas e técnicas, conhecidas ou não, a fim de melhorarem seus desempenhos. Assim, o objetivo desta tese foi propor uma estrutura analítica integrando de forma sequencial o processo de melhoria contínua DMAIC e o método de análise multicriterial para tomada de decisão Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), com vistas às aplicações em operações de distribuição física de bebidas. Em um primeiro momento, por meio de uma pesquisa bibliográfica, foi proposta uma estrutura geral, denominada Estrutura Analítica DMAIC/AHP, envolvendo as teorias supracitadas. Além disso, com o auxílio de um estudo de caso, foi proposta uma estrutura detalhada para a tentativa de melhoria da operação de distribuição física de bebidas em uma empresa na cidade de Ribeirão Preto. O foco esteve também na oportunidade de se obter maior conhecimento do processo em estudo e melhorar o embasamento para a tomada de decisão. A aplicação da estrutura analítica foi dividida em três fases: fase 1 - definições para o projeto de melhoria; fase 2 - condução do processo de melhoria em si; e fase 3 (denominada metafase) - responsável por monitorar/acompanhar as atividades do projeto. A aplicação em um caso real permitiu a proposta de atividades e ferramentas para entendimento e aperfeiçoamento do processo; além de alternativas de decisão frente aos problemas encontrados; deu embasamento para a tomada de decisão no momento de se implementarem as melhorias e apresentou instrumentos para manutenção e controle das alterações propostas no projeto. Um ganho evidente com a junção das teorias foi que houve um auxílio mútuo entre elas. Dessa forma, o processo de melhoria contínua DMAIC, por meio de suas etapas minuciosas de conhecimentos de processos e de causas de problemas, pôde embasar de forma robusta a definição do modelo hierárquico do AHP, desde o objetivo geral a ser atingido, passando pelos critérios de decisão, até se chegar às alternativas de decisão propostas para o processo em estudo. Por outro lado, como o DMAIC não apresenta um método de tomada de decisão atraente, o AHP pôde auxiliar na tomada de decisão multicriterial de forma mais organizada, consistente e assertiva.
The competitiveness of an organization and consequently its prosperity before competitive markets, depends widely on the capacity for innovation and improvement of its products/services and processes. The pursuit for better manufacturing standards and services provided to customers, in addition to the applications of new management techniques, continuous improvement, optimization and decision-making, have attracted attention of organizations. The human creative effort should propose approaches of competitive basis, combining tools and techniques, known or not, in order to improve their performance. Thus, the objective of this thesis was to propose an analytical structure integrating sequentially the process of continuous improvement DMAIC of Six Sigma and the multi-criteria analysis method for decision making Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), in order to apply in real cases in beverage industries. At first, through a literature search, it was proposed a general structure, called Analytical Structure DMAIC/AHP, involving the above theories. In addition, with a case study aid, it was proposed a detailed structure attempting to improve the operation of physical distribution for beverages in a company in the city of Ribeirão Preto. The focus was also on the opportunity to gain greater knowledge of the process under study and improve the foundation for decision making. The application of analytical structure was divided into three phases: phase 1 - definitions for the improvement project; phase 2 - implementation of the improvement process itself; and phase 3 (called metaphase) - responsible for monitoring/following the activities of the project. The application in a real case allowed the proposal of activities and tools for the understanding and improvement of the process, as well as possibilities for more alternatives to problems encountered; provided foundation for decision making at the time of implementing the improvements and presented tools for maintenance and control of changes proposed in the project. An obvious gain from the junction of the theories was that there was a mutual aid between them. Thus, the process of continuous improvement DMAIC, through its detailed stages of knowledge of processes and causes of problems could robustly base the definition of the hierarchical model of AHP, since the overall objective to be attained, passing through the decision criteria, until they get to the alternatives of decisions proposed for the process under study. On the other hand, as the DMAIC does not present an attractive method of decision-making, AHP could assist in multi-criteria decision making more organized, consistent and assertive.

Esta tese apresenta a formulação de uma extensão da tabela de decisão adaptativa, denominada Tabela de Decisão Adaptativa Estendida (TDAE), que tem por objetivo apoiar aplicações de tomada de decisão multicritério. É implementado um algoritmo de tomada de decisão para a TDAE que incorpora os mecanismos de tabelas de decisão tradicionais, técnicas adaptativas e procedimentos de métodos multicritério. A descrição e execução do algoritmo e a aplicabilidade da TDAE em problemas de decisão multicritério são mostradas numa aplicação particular. É apresentada uma avaliação de desempenho do algoritmo de decisão, em relação ao custo de tempo e de memória exigidos para a sua execução. Uma ferramenta de apoio à decisão baseada na TDAE é descrita e implementada. Os resultados do trabalho mostram que a TDAE é viável e pode ser uma opção alternativa de dispositivo para apoiar processos decisórios de problemas de decisão multicritério.
This thesis presents the formulation of an extension of the adaptive decision table called Table of Extended Adaptive Decision (TDAE), which aims at supporting applications of multicriteria decision making. A decision making algorithm is implemented for the TDAE embodying the traditional decision tables mechanisms, adaptive techniques, and multicriteria methods procedures. The description and implementation of the algorithm and the applicability of TDAE in multicriteria decision problems are shown in a particular application. A perform evaluation of the decision algorithm is presented in relation to time and memory costs required for its implementation. A tool for decision support based on TDAE is described and implemented. The results of the study show that TDAE is viable and can be a device alternative option to support the decision making problems of multicriteria decision.

Includes bibliographical references.
Poverty eradication as a policy issue has received significant attention since the promulgation of the South African National Development Plan (NDP). The NDP envisages that by 2030 poverty should be eradicated. To do this government must accurately target their interventions ensuring that the intended population benefits from the actual poverty eradication intervention. With the evolution of systems and processes in the Science and Technology industry over the past two decades, the integration of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and MCDM techniques has achieved encouraging results within different planning domains (Lidouh, 2012: 2). This research paper presents a vector - based GIS - MCDM methodology that integrates both Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and COmplex PRoportional Assessment (COPRAS) within a GIS environment. This integration is facilitated through the use of loose coupling within the ArcGIS 10.2 environment.

O objetivo principal da tese foi desenvolver um método multicriterial de seleção de processos de fundição de metais (MMSPF) para fabricação de componentes, considerando-se critérios técnicos, ambientais e econômicos para ser aplicado nas fases iniciais do desenvolvimento do componente. O MMSPF é constituído pelos módulos de seleção técnica e econômica. O módulo de seleção técnica é destinado a antecipar as atividades de seleção de processos, a serem desenvolvidas na fase de projeto preliminar, enquanto o módulo de seleção econômica é destinado a antecipar as atividades de seleção de processos, necessárias à fase de projeto detalhado. O MMSPF realiza a seleção de processos de forma sequencial. Inicialmente, avaliando aspectos técnicos e, posteriormente, considerando aspectos econômicos. O MMSPF contempla as seis classes de ligas metálicas mais utilizadas na produção de componentes fundidos: aços, ferros fundidos, ligas de alumínio, ligas de cobre, ligas de magnésio e ligas de zinco, apropriadas aos processos de fundição de metais destinados à produção de peças. O MMSPF contempla os quinze principais processos de fundição de metais destinados a produção de peças: areia verde – manual (P1), areia verde – mecanizada (P2), areia verde – automatizada (P3), areia silicato - CO2 (P4), areia com resina – cura frio (P5), areia com resina – shell molding (P6), processo molde de gesso – plaster molding (P7), processo molde cerâmico (P8), investment casting (P9), molde cheio - lost foam (P10), fundição centrífuga - molde metálico (P11), molde permanente – gravidade (P12), molde permanente - baixa pressão (P13), fundição sob pressão - die casting (P14) e squeeze casting (P15) como conjunto solução da seleção. As inovações propostas pelo MMSPF foram: (i) consolidação das diferentes fontes de informação dos processos a serem utilizadas no MMSPF, por meio de uma função de agregação; (ii) utilização de aspectos ambientais como critérios para seleção de processos de fundição de metais; (iii) consideração da estimação de custos de fabricação para realizar a seleção de processos de fundição de metais a partir de um índice de custo de fabricação, relativo ao desempenho técnico. Também foi desenvolvido um aplicativo computacional para implementar o MMSPF composto por três elementos principais: um software de planilha eletrônica (Microsoft Excel), no qual são realizadas todas as operações matemáticas necessárias ao desenvolvimento das etapas operacionais do MMSPF; um banco de dados, o software livre SQLite, responsável por armazenar as informações utilizadas no aplicativo computacional do MMSPF; e a interface gráfica do usuário, que atua como elemento de conexão entre o banco de dados, o software de planilha eletrônica e o usuário.
The main objective of this thesis was to develop a Multi-criteria Method for metal Casting Process Selection (MMCPS) to manufacturing components, considering technical criteria, environmental and economic to be applied in the early stages of design of the component. The MMCPS consists modules for the technical and economic selection. The technique selection module is designed to anticipate the activities of processes selection to be developed in the embodiment design, while the economic selection module is designed to anticipate selection process activities, necessary the detailed design phase. The MMCPS conducts the selection process sequentially. Initially, evaluating technical aspects and, subsequently, considering economic aspects. The MMCPS includes the six classes of metal alloys more used in the production of cast components: steel, cast iron, aluminum alloys, copper alloys, magnesium alloys and zinc alloys, suitable for metal shape casting processes. The MMCPS covers the fifteen main metal shape casting processes: green sand – hand molding (P1), green sand – mechanized molding (P2), green sand - automatic molding (P3), silicate-CO2 (P4), air-set/nobake (P5), shell molding (P6), plaster molding (P7), ceramic mold (P8), investment casting (P9), lost foam (P10), centrifugal casting – metallic mold (P11), permanent mold-gravity (P12), permanent mold-low pressure (P13), die casting (P14) and squeeze casting (P15) as the set solution for the selection process. The innovations proposed by MMCPS were: (i) consolidation of different sources of information processes to be used in MMCPS through an aggregation function; (ii) use of environmental aspects as criteria for selection of metal casting processes; (iii) consideration of the cost estimation of manufacturing to make the metal casting process selection from an index of manufacturing cost on the technical performance. Also developed a computational tool to implement the MMCPS composed of three main elements: a spreadsheet software (Microsoft Excel), which are held every mathematical operations necessary for the development of operational steps MMCPS; a database, freeware SQLite, responsible for storing information used in the application of computational MMCPS, and the graphical user interface, which acts as a link between the database, the spreadsheet software and the user.

Decision making is an essential activity for humans and often becomes complex in the presence of uncertainty or insufficient knowledge. This research aims at estimating preferences using pairwise comparisons. A decision maker uses pairwise comparison when he/she is unable to directly assign criteria weights or scores to the available options. The judgments provided in pairwise comparisons may not always be consistent for several reasons. Experimentation has been used to obtain statistical evidence related to the widely-used consistency measures. The results highlight the need to propose new consistency measures. Two new consistency measures - termed congruence and dissonance - are proposed to aid the decision maker in the process of elicitation. Inconsistencies in pairwise comparisons are of two types i.e. cardinal and ordinal. It is shown that both cardinal and ordinal consistency can be improved with the help of these two measures. A heuristic method is then devised to detect and remove intransitive judgments. The results suggest that the devised method is feasible for improving ordinal consistency and is computationally more efficient than the optimization-based methods. There exist situations when revision of judgments is not allowed and prioritization is required without attempting to remove inconsistency. A new prioritization method has been proposed using the graph-theoretic approach. Although the performance of the proposed prioritization method was found to be comparable to other approaches, it has practical limitation in terms of computation time. As a consequence, the problem of prioritization is explored as an optimization problem. A new method based on multi-objective optimization is formulated that offers multiple non-dominated solutions and outperforms all other relevant methods for inconsistent set of judgments. A priority estimation tool (PriEsT) has been developed that implements the proposed consistency measures and prioritization methods. In order to show the benefits of PriEsT, a case study involving Telecom infrastructure selection is presented.

The research presented in this Thesis is primarily concerned with the field of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) - specifically, the business applications of the technology. The empirical problem addressed is the selection of branch banks as candidates for closure using the network of branch banks of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in the Sydney metropolitan region as the case study. Decisions to close branches are made by the Bank on the basis of performance indicators that are essentially financial. In this research, however, an alternative approach is adopted: the problem is addressed using a set of spatial criteria. Following the deregulation of the finance industry in the 1980's and the rapid introduction of new electronic channels for delivering financial services, the major banking institutions have been engaged in a process of reorganising their networks of branch banks. The most visible manifestation of this has been the ongoing and widespread closure of branches. Selecting branch banks for closure is a typical example of a complex semi-structured multi-dimensional, multi-criteria, decision-making problem. It has been well documented in previous research that Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) models are the most appropriate ones for solving problems in this particular domain. The identification of branches for closure is also characterised by a significant spatial dimension. Decisions are based on a consideration of a number of geographical criteria and various forms of spatial analysis may be involved. An appropriate technology to assist with solving decision-making problems with a significant spatial dimension is a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS). Most SDSS have been based on the integration of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology with analytical models that are proven to be best suited to specific decision-making problems and this is the approach adopted in this research. The prototype MCBC-SDSS (Multi-Criteria Branch Closure SDSS) developed here is based on the integration through the loose coupling of the ArcView GIS software with the Criterium DecisionPlus (CDP) software, which contains the suite of non-spatial analytical models that provide the analytical capability for solving multi-criteria problems. ArcView GIS is used as the engine that drives the system and to provide the analytical and display facilities to support the spatial data involved. Two MCDM models from the CDP software are used to support the decision-making analysis - the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique (SMART). The integration of GIS with the MCDM models is based on a considerable amount of software enhancement, interface development, and computer programming. The development of the integrated system is designed to create an intelligent and user-friendly SDSS, the application of which, from the user's perspective, is a seamless operation. The success of the MCBC-SDSS is demonstrated by its application to identify candidates for closure among the 197 branches of the CBA in the Sydney metropolitan area in 2000 - the year when the building of the database for the research had been completed. The analysis is based purely on spatial considerations that have been gleaned from a major review of the literature that previous researchers have identified as affecting branch viability and performance. A set of 17 spatial variables was used as the criteria in the MCDM models. The criteria are organised in two blocks: the first includes 9 criteria relating to the characteristics of demand for branch service in the branch trade areas ('catchment area' specific criteria) while the second includes 8 criteria relating to aspects of supply provided by the existing branches in their location ('location specific' criteria). Using the developed approach, the MCBC-SDSS has been used directly to compare alternatives against criteria, not only spatial based but also financial ones, thus providing a basis for identifying the best choices regarding branch closure. The steps in the preparation of the data and the iterative procedure for implementing the MCDM models are explained and illustrated. This involves building the initial evaluation matrix, normalising the raw criteria scores, assigning weights to the criteria, and calculating priorities. Based on these, the AHP and SMART models then calculate a decision score for each branch that is used as the basis for creating the preference ranking of the branches. In this, branches with a high rank score based on the combined weighted contribution of the 17 criteria are considered to be operationally viable. On the other hand, branches with the lowest rank scores are considered as potential candidates for closure. The preference rankings generated by the models have been tested to examine their robustness in terms of the validity of criteria and their weights used in the decision analysis. Sensitivity analysis has been conducted, the results of which show that the preference rankings are stable. Different approaches have been used to validate the initial criteria, and analyse their contribution to the ranking of branch banks for closure. These help identify critical spatial variables among the 17 initial criteria selected, and suggest that some of the criteria initially selected could be deleted from the criteria list used to generate the preference rankings without substantially affecting the results. The reasonableness of the resulting preference ranking has been further demonstrated from analyses based on changing criteria weights and alternatives. The research successfully demonstrates one of the ways of enhancing the functionality of a GIS through its integration with non-spatial analytical models to develop a SDSS to aid solving decision-making problems in the selected domain. Given that to date there has been relatively few applications of SDSS similar to that developed in this research to real world decision-making problems, the procedure adopted makes it suitable for decision-making in a range of other service business applications characterised by a significant spatial dimension and multiple outlets including shopping centres, motor car dealerships, restaurant and supermarket chains. Instead of just providing solutions, however, the SDSS-based analysis in this research can better be thought of as adding value to spatial data that forms an important source of information required by decision-makers, providing insight about the situation, uncertainty, objectives, and trade-offs involved in reaching decisions, and being capable of generating alternative scenarios based on different inputs to the models that may be used to identify recommended courses of action. It can lead to better and more effective decision-making in institutions involving multi-outlet retail and service businesses and hence enables both integrated data analysis and modelling while taking multiple criteria and decision-makers' preferences into consideration.

Decisions among alternatives that do not fit rigorous numerical frameworks are common. Such decisions, in which the various aspects of the alternatives are considered simultaneously, are called a tradeoff studies. Tradeoff studies may be more common than optimization problems, but are not generally formalized in written form.Tradeoff studies are broadly recognized and mandated as the method for considering many criteria simultaneously. They are the primary method for making a decision among alternatives listed in the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Decision Analysis and Resolution (DAR) process.The field of Decision Making can explain why the mechanics of tradeoff studies are approached with underconfidence, and can also help eliminate biases from the tradeoff process. Many conclusions obtained from Judgment and Decision Making (JDM), Cognitive Science and Experimental Economics can be used to shed light on various aspects of the tradeoff process. Of course, since many experiments were designed to reveal truths about choice at a basic level, they do not exactly model the processes of tradeoff studies. The technique used to compare the basic experiments and tradeoff studies will be abstraction.Abstraction noun 1. a general concept formed by extracting common features from specific examples, 2. the process of extracting the underlying essence.What follows is a union of the fields of tradeoff studies and cognitive decision making. Because these two areas have never before been explicitly unified, I have produced some unfinished areas in which specific research needs to be done. At this stage, the work of unification must necessarily be conducted at an abstract level.

For many decisions validation of their outcomes is invariably problematic to objectively assess. Therefore to aid analysis and validation of decision outcomes, approaches which provide improved traceability and more semantically meaningful measurements of the decision process are required. Hence, this research investigates traceability, transparency, interactivity and auditability to improve the decision making process. Approaches and evaluation measures are proposed to facilitate a richer decision making experience. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) seeks to determine the suitability of alternatives of a goal with respect to multiple criteria. A key component of prominent MCDA methods is the concept of pairwise comparison. For a set of elements, pairwise comparison enables an accurate and transparent extraction and codification of a decision maker’s preferences, though facilitating a separation of concerns. From a set of pairwise comparisons, a ranking of the elements under consideration can be calculated. There are scenarios when a set of pairwise comparisons undergo alteration, both for individual and multiple decision makers. A set of measures of compromise are proposed to quantify the alteration that a set of pairwise comparisons undergo in such scenarios. The measures seek to provide a decision maker with meaningful knowledge regarding how their views have altered. A set of pairwise comparisons may be inconsistent. When inconsistency is present it adversely affects a ranking of the elements derived from the comparisons. Moreover inconsistency within pairwise comparisons used for consideration of more than a handful of elements is almost inevitable. Existing approaches that seek to alter a set of comparisons to reduce inconsistency lack traceability, flexibility, and specific consideration of alteration to the judgments in a way that is meaningful to a decision maker. An approach to inconsistency reduction is proposed that seeks to address these issues. For many decisions the opinions of multiple decision makers are utilized, either to avail of their combined expertise or to incorporate conflicting views. Aggregation of multiple decision makers’ pairwise companions seek to combine the views of the group into a single representation of views. An approach to group aggregation of pairwise comparisons is proposed that models compromise between the decision makers, facilitates decision maker constraints, considers inconsistency reduction during aggregation and dynamically incorporates decision maker weights of importance. With internet access becoming widespread being able to garner the views of a large group of decision makers’ views has become feasible. An approach to the aggregation of a large group of decision makers’ preferences is proposed. The approach facilitates understanding regarding both the agreement and conflict within the group during calculation of an overall group consensus. A Multi-Objective Optimisation Decision Software (MOODS) prototype tool has been developed that implements both the new measures of compromise and the proposed approaches to inconsistency reduction and group aggregation.

There is a consensus nowadays that the economic, environmental and social considerations in a country's development are needed to achieve sustainability. In the area of construction, agendas have been advanced to promote sustainable development that takes the life cycle of a project into consideration. Nevertheless, it is clear that the fundamental limitation of sustainability is that it tends to concentrate on the biophysical and economic considerations of the built environment without paying sufficient attention to the social aspects. Not including the social aspects early on affects a society's short and long-term infrastructure development. Since the impacts on society are multidimensional, a representation that evaluates the social aspects must be also. The assessment of the social aspects and quality of life go beyond the quantitative aspects. Indeed, the results of an evaluation are just as significant as the participatory legitimacy of its process. In this sense, multicriteria decision-making methods are an alternative that optimally represent the multidimensional and participatory assessment of the social aspects. However, social sustainability in the evaluation of infrastructures has not been adequately addressed to date. In this light, the social dimension in the assessment of infrastructures requires a review and new approaches in the decision-making in the early phases of a project's development. All this leads to the proposal of the general aim of the study as follows: To assess the social sustainability of infrastructures by integrating it into the decision-making. This general aim is split into different specific objectives that seek to explore the areas for improvement in the treatment of social sustainability. From this point, methodologies are proposed to estimate the contribution to social sustainability through multicriteria infrastructure assessment. The scope of this investigation focuses on the assessment of civil engineering infrastructures in the formulation, feasibility and planning stages as well as consideration of multiple social aspects. The document presented is composed of six complementary articles (three already published and three others in the review process in scientific journals). In general, for the development of the research goals the studies use different techniques: a Delphi panel of experts, an analytic hierarchy process (AHP), utility theory, stochastic systems, multi-objective methods and Bayesian reasoning techniques. The research has been applied to different international contexts. The social criteria were contextualized in the life cycle of Chilean infrastructures. An active learning method about sustainability was applied in a graduate course in Spain with international students. Additionally, two methods to estimate short and long-term social contribution were implemented on road infrastructures in El Salvador. From the results of the investigation, methods have been proposed to address the social dimension in the multicriteria assessment of civil infrastructures and integrate it into the decision-making process. The proposals arose from an exploration of the needs to improve the multicriteria methods to assess social sustainability. Thus, integrated treatments are put forward to strengthen the social dimension in the sustainability assessment process. This study contributes the tools that support public entities responsible for land-use planning and the prioritization of infrastructures to strengthen the decision-making processes.
Hoy en día existe un consenso por el cual las consideraciones económicas, ambientales y sociales en el desarrollo de los países constituyen dimensiones necesarias para alcanzar la sostenibilidad. En el ámbito de la construcción se han impulsado agendas que promueven el desarrollo sostenible considerando el ciclo de vida de los proyectos. Sin embargo, se reconoce que la limitación fundamental de la sostenibilidad, es que tiende a centrarse en las consideraciones biofísicas y económicas del entorno construido; sin prestar la suficiente atención a los aspectos sociales. La no consideración temprana de los aspectos sociales afecta al desarrollo de la infraestructura en la sociedad a corto y largo plazo. Dado que los impactos sobre la sociedad son multidimensionales, una representación que evalúe los aspectos sociales también debe serlo. La valoración de los aspectos sociales y la calidad de vida superan los aspectos cuantitativos. En efecto, los resultados de una evaluación son igual de trascedentes que la legitimidad participativa de su proceso. En este sentido los métodos de toma de decisiones multicriterio constituyen una alternativa que representa de un modo óptimo la evaluación multidimensional y participativa de los aspectos sociales. Con todo, la sostenibilidad social en la evaluación de infraestructuras no ha sido adecuadamente tratada hasta este momento. A la vista de estos antecedentes, la dimensión social en la evaluación de las infraestructuras requiere una revisión y nuevos enfoques en la toma de decisión en las fases tempranas del desarrollo del proyecto. Todo ello conduce a plantear el objetivo general de la investigación de la siguiente forma: Evaluar la sostenibilidad social de las infraestructuras integrándola en la toma de decisiones. Este objetivo general se desglosa en diferentes objetivos específicos que buscan explorar las áreas de mejora en el tratamiento de la sostenibilidad social. A partir de este punto, se proponen metodologías para estimar la contribución a la sostenibilidad social a través de la evaluación multicriterio de infraestructuras. El alcance de la investigación se concentra en la evaluación de infraestructuras de ingeniería civil en las etapas de formulación, factibilidad y planificación; y la consideración de múltiples aspectos sociales. El documento presentado se compone por seis artículos complementarios (tres de ellos ya publicados y otros tres en proceso de revisión en revistas científicas). En general para el desarrollo de los objetivos de la investigación los estudios utilizan diferentes técnicas: panel de expertos Delphi, el Proceso Analítico Jerárquico (AHP), la teoría de la utilidad, sistemas estocásticos, métodos multiobjetivo y las técnicas de razonamiento Bayesiano. La investigación se ha aplicado a distintos contextos internacionales. La contextualización de los criterios sociales en el ciclo de vida se implementó en infraestructuras chilenas. Se aplicó un método de aprendizaje activo de la sostenibilidad en un curso de posgrado en España con estudiantes internacionales. Por su parte, dos métodos de estimación de la contribución social, a corto y largo plazo, en infraestructuras viarias se implementaron en El Salvador. A partir de los resultados de la investigación se han propuesto métodos para tratar la dimensión social en la evaluación multicriterio de infraestructuras civiles e integrarla en el proceso de toma de decisión. Las propuestas han surgido a partir de una exploración de las necesidades de mejora de los métodos multicriterio para evaluar la sostenibilidad social. De esta forma se proponen tratamientos integrados para fortalecer la dimensión social en el proceso de evaluación de la sostenibilidad. Esta investigación aporta las herramientas que respaldan a los organismos públicos encargados de la planificación territorial y de la priorización de infraestructuras para apoyar los procesos de t
Hui en dia hi ha un consens pel qual les consideracions econòmiques, ambientals i socials en el desenrrollament dels països constitueixen dimensions necessàries per a aconseguir la sostenibilitat. En l'àmbit de la construcció s'han impulsat agendes que promouen el desenvolupament sostenible considerant el seu cicle de vida. No obstant això, es reconeix que la limitació fonamental de la sostenibilitat, és que tendix a centrar-se en les consideracions biofísiques i econòmiques de l'entorn construït; sense prestar la suficient atenció als aspectes socials. La no consideració primerenca dels aspectes socials afecta el desenrollament de l'infraestructura a la societat a curt i llarg termini. Atès que els impactes sobre la societat són multidimensionals, una representació que evalue els aspectes socials també ha de ser-ho. La valoració dels aspectes socials i la qualitat de vida superen els aspectes quantitatius. En efecte, els resultats d'una evaluació són igual de transcendents que la legitimitat participativa del seu procés. En este sentit els mètodes de presa de decisions multicriteri constituïxen una alternativa que representa d'una manera òptima l'evaluació multidimensional i participativa dels aspectes socials. Amb tot, la sostenibilitat social en l'evaluació d'infraestructures no ha segut adequadament tractada fins ara. A la vista d'estos antecedents, la dimensió social en l'evaluació de les infraestructures requerix una revisió i plantejar nous enfocaments en la presa de decisió en les fases primerenques del desenrrollament del projecte. Tot això conduïx a plantejar l'objectiu general de la investigació de la següent manera: Evaluar la sostenibilitat social de les infraestructures integrant-la en la presa de decisions. Est objectiu general es desglossa en diferents objectius específics que busquen explorar les àrees de millora en el tractament de la sostenibilitat social. A partir d'est punt, es proposen metodologies per estimar la contribució a la sostenibilitat social a través de l'evaluació multicriteri d'infraestructures. L'abast de la investigació es concentra en l'evaluació d'infraestructures d'enginyeria civil en les etapes de formulació, factibilitat i planificació; i la consideració de múltiples aspectes socials. El document presentat es compon de sis articles complementaris (tres d'ells ja publicats i tres més en procés de revisió en revistes científiques). En general per al desenrrollament dels objectius de la investigació els estudis utilitzen diferents tècniques: panell d'experts Delphi, el Procés Analític Jeràrquic (AHP), la teoria de la utilitat, sistemes estocàstics, mètodes multiobjectiu i les tècniques de raonament Bayesià. L'investigació s'ha aplicat a diferents contextos internacionals. La contextualització dels criteris socials en el cicle de vida es va implementar en infraestructures xilenes. Es va aplicar un mètode d'aprenentatge actiu de la sostenibilitat en un curs de postgrau a Espanya amb estudiants internacionals. Per altra banda, es van implementar dos mètodes d'estimació de la contribució social, a curt i llarg terme, en infraestructures viàries a El Salvador. A partir dels resultats de la investigació s'han proposat mètodes per tractar la dimensió social en l'avaluació multicriteri d'infraestructures civils i integrar-la en el procés de presa de decisió. Les propostes han sorgit a partir d'una exploració de les necessitats de millora dels mètodes multicriteri per a evaluar la sostenibilitat social. D'esta manera es proposen tractaments integrats per a enfortir la dimensió social en el procés d'evaluació de la sostenibilitat. Esta investigació aporta les ferramentes que donen suport als organismes públics encarregats de la planificació territorial i de la priorització d'infraestructures per recolzar els processos de presa de decisió.
Sierra Varela, LA. (2017). EVALUACIÓN MULTICRITERIO DE LA SOSTENIBILIDAD SOCIAL PARA EL DESARROLLO DE INFRAESTRUCTURAS [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/91849
TESIS

Humanitarian relief and aid organizations all over the world implement efforts aimed at recovering from disasters, reducing poverty and promoting human rights. The purpose of this dissertation is to develop a series of quantitative decision models to help address some of the challenges faced by humanitarian logistics. The first study discusses the development of a spreadsheet-based multicriteria scheduling model for a small development aid organization in a South American developing country. Development aid organizations plan and execute efforts that are primarily directed towards promoting human welfare. Because these organizations rely heavily on the use of volunteers to carry out their social mission, it is important that they manage their volunteer workforce efficiently. In this study, we demonstrate not only how the proposed model helps to reduce the number of unfilled shifts and to decrease total scheduling costs, but also how it helps to better satisfy the volunteers’ scheduling preferences, thus supporting long-term retention and effectiveness of the workforce. The purpose of the second study is to develop a decision model to assist in the management of humanitarian relief volunteers. One of the challenges faced by humanitarian organizations is that there exist limited decision technologies that fit their needs while it has also been pointed out that those organizations experience coordination difficulties with volunteers willing to help. Even though employee workforce management models have been the topic of extensive research over the past decades, no work has focused on the problem of managing humanitarian relief volunteers. In this study, we discuss a series of principles from the field of volunteer management and develop a multicriteria optimization model to assist in the assignment of both individual volunteers and volunteer groups to tasks. We present illustrative examples and analyze two complementary solution methodologies that incorporate the decision maker's preferences and knowledge and allow him/her to trade-off conflicting objectives. The third study discusses the development of a decision model for the procurement of goods in humanitarian efforts. Despite the prevalence of procurement expenditures in humanitarian efforts, procurement in humanitarian contexts is a topic that has only been discussed in a qualitative manner in the literature. In our paper, we introduce a two stage decision model with recourse to improve the procurement of goods in humanitarian relief supply chains and present an illustrative example. Conclusions, limitations, and directions for future research are also discussed.
Ph. D.

The diploma thesis deals with multicriterial analysis in geographic information systems. Multricriterial decision making is applied in locality of Nový Lískovec and deals with problems connected with housing in panel block of flats located in this locality. The main aim of the thesis is use right method for multicriterial evaluation of this locality by the most important criteria for housing, graphical expression of these factors by GIS and assessment and evaluation the best variants resulting from specific values of criteria. In the thesis is subsequently addressed issue of GIS, multicriterial decision making, locality of Nový Lískovec, collection of input documents and process of spatial analysis. The thesis points out at the application GIS for estate agencies or others organizations providing housing offers and graphical displaying the best variants based on a many search-housing criteria.

Notre thèse est consacrée à l’étude des méthodes de rangements multicritères dans le cadre de la problématique de tri.

Dans un problème de tri une personne, appelée décideur, désire assigner un objet, appelé action, à des catégories prédéfinies. Des problèmes de tri surgissent régulièrement dans la vie de tous les jours. Par exemple, un médecin ausculte son patient et sur base des symptômes observés, il assigne son patient à une catégorie de pathologies. Ainsi, le médecin peut prescrire un traitement approprié. Par ailleurs, on catégorise les cyclones tropicaux en fonction de leur vitesse, pression superficielle et de la hauteur de marée. En fonction de la catégorie du cyclone, des dégâts éventuels peuvent être prédits et des mesures de protection adéquates devront être prises.

Dans un problème de tri, un décideur regroupe ainsi les actions qu’il considère similaires, à des fins descriptives, organisationnelles ou préventives. Nous supposerons en outre que le décideur exprime une relation de préférence entre les classes préalablement définies.

D’autre part, les méthodes de rangement permettent de ranger les actions de la meilleure à la moins bonne. Nul étudiant ne peut nier l’existence des " rankings " d’universités. Une société ordonne les candidats à l’issue d’un entretien d’embauche. Une société désire par ailleurs établir des partenariats avec les fournisseurs les plus performants. Nous sommes tous confrontés à cette tâche délicate de ranger les actions de la meilleure à la moins bonne. Les méthodes d’aide à la décision proposent des techniques permettant à un décideur d’obtenir un rangement d’actions.

L’objectif de cette thèse est d’étudier la possibilité de résoudre des problèmes de tri à l’aide de méthodes de rangement. L’approche adoptée est de ranger une action particulière par rapport à des normes ou profils définissant les catégories. L’assignation de l’action sera dès lors basée sur sa position dans ce rangement particulier.

Quelles sont les hypothèses nécessaires pour un tel modèle ?Ces méthodes présentent-elles un biais ou ont-elles d’autres avantages par rapport aux méthodes de tri existantes? Est-il préférable de modéliser les catégories à l’aide de critères même si celles-ci ne présentent pas de relation de préférence ?Dans cette thèse nous donnerons des premiers éléments de réponse en développant de nouvelles méthodes de tri basées sur des méthodes de rangement existantes.

Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Orientador: Max Henrique Machado Costa
Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação
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Resumo: Long Term Evolution (LTE), um padrão desenvolvido pelo 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), é atualmente a principal tecnologia 4G, provendo convergência tecnológica para esta geração de sistemas de comunicação celular. As redes LTE prometem velocidades de transmissão de dados em torno de 100 Mbps no canal de descida. Para esta alta taxa de transferência de dados, é necessário otimizar o uso dos recursos de rede. A tecnologia LTE utiliza técnicas de agendamento para a alocação de recursos de rádio com base nas condições do canal de comunicação. Este trabalho apresenta um algoritmo customizável para agendamento de dados multi-usuário no canal de descida das redes LTE que pode priorizar diferentes tipos de serviços selecionados. O esquema de agendamento proposto é uma versão modificada do agendador Proportional Fairness, que usa a técnica Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Isto permite agregar critérios de desempenho para melhorar a alocação de recursos com base nas condições de tráfego gerais e um conjunto de prioridades de serviços predefinidos. A abordagem para essa customização é atribuir pesos para determinados parâmetros utilizados no processo de alocação de recursos, modificando assim a importância relativa desses parâmetros, criando uma hierarquia de critérios. É possível ainda adicionar critérios para diferentes tipos de dados através de matrizes de comparação. A matriz de comparação quantifica o julgamento do tomador de decisão no que se refere à importância relativa dos diferentes critérios. Assim, o agendador pode se tornar flexível e adaptável a diferentes cenários de tráfego. Exemplos são apresentados onde o tráfego de vídeo é priorizado
Abstract: Long Term Evolution (LTE), a standard developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), is currently the 4G mainstream technology, providing technology convergence for this generation of cellular communication systems. LTE networks promise data transmission rates of 100 Mbps in the downlink channel. For this high throughput it needs to optimize the use of network resources. LTE uses scheduling techniques for radio resource allocation based on communication channel conditions. This paper presents a customizable algorithm for multi-user data scheduling in the LTE downlink channel that can prioritize selected types of services. The proposed scheduling scheme is a modified version of the proportional fairness scheduler that uses Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) techniques. This allows to aggregate performance criteria to improve resource allocation based on general traffic conditions and a set of predefined service priorities. The approach for this customization is to assign weights to certain parameters used in the resource allocation process, thus modifying the relative importance of these parameters and creating a hierarchy of criteria. It is possible to add criteria for different types of data through comparison matrices. A comparison matrix quantifies the judgement of the decision maker with respect to the relative importance of different criteria. Thus the scheduler can be made flexible and adaptive to different traffic scenarios. Examples are given where video traffic is prioritized
Doutorado
Telecomunicações e Telemática
Doutor em Engenharia Elétrica

This thesis describes the implementation methods for multi-criteria evaluation into the software application. IZAR is a software product that solves decision problems. IZAR solves single and multi-criteria, continuous and discrete decision problems. This thesis describes the extension of application IZAR. Several methods of multi-criteria evaluation were added into application. Supplemented methods were chosen so that the extended applications use the most basic methods from the decision theory. Introductory part of the thesis describes the basic methods that have been implemented into IZAR. There is summarized the theoretical basis of each method. The central part deals with the description of each method in terms of implementation. Attention is paid to the parts of the algorithms that have been modified or extended so that the methods are universal. Finally, the thesis shows the test examples in which functionality of methods was verified. There is described a group of complicated decision problems and control conditions that were created for these problems to find the right results.

Orientador: Maria Lucia Galves
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo
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Resumo: A capacidade de estocagem de grãos instalada nas propriedades rurais no Brasil é baixa, bem como os armazéns, silos e entrepostos comerciais (público ou privado), devido a localizações, tipos e condições físicas, apresentam deficiências no que se refere ao desempenho e suficiência dessa infraestrutura. Assim, esse trabalho procurou abordar o problema de decisão relativo à implantação de um sistema de armazenamento de grãos na propriedade rural, considerando riscos, benefícios, incertezas e alternativas. Para tanto, foi utilizada a metodologia de auxílio multicritério à decisão, de modo a considerar os inúmeros objetivos, consequências, critérios, valores, expectativas e desempenhos das alternativas consideradas. A aplicação do método em uma situação real foi realizada para auxiliar um empresário rural (sojicultura) a decidir qual infraestrutura adotar para armazenar sua produção. Os resultados obtidos foram importantes para melhorar o seu entendimento sobre a problemática considerada, bem como sobre as alternativas existentes e suas respectivas vantagens e desvantagens. Dessa forma, concluiu-se que a metodologia de auxílio multicritério à decisão pode ser uma abordagem útil na implantação de um sistema de armazenagem de grãos na propriedade rural, pois foi capaz de incorporar diversas variáveis e objetivos, bem como os valores do decisor (produtor), fornecendo subsídios para a tomada de decisão e o acompanhamento da eficácia e eficiência da solução adotada
Abstract: The grain storage capacity installed in rural properties in Brazil is low, as well as grain storehouses, silos and commercial warehouses (public or private), because the locations, types and conditions, display gaps with regard to performance and adequacy of such facilities. Thus, this study sought to address the decision problem on the implementation of on-farm grain storage system, taking account of risks, benefits, uncertainties and alternatives. For this purpose, it was adopted the methodology of multicriteria decision aid, in order to consider the many objectives, consequences, criteria, values, expectations and performances of the existing alternatives. The application of the method in a real situation was held to aid a rural entrepreneur (soybean production) to decide what infrastructure to select to store his production. The results were important to improve his understanding of the considered issues, as well as on the alternatives and their advantages and disadvantages. Thus, it was concluded that the methodology of multicriteria decision aid can be a useful approach on implementation of on-farm grain storage system because it was able to incorporate many variables and objectives, as well as the values of the decision maker (producer), supporting decision making and providing informations to monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of the selected solution
Mestrado
Transportes
Mestre em Engenharia Civil

L'évaluation des bénéfices et des risques des médicaments joue un rôle central dans la protection de la santé publique. Cependant, et de l’avis général, il apparaît que cette évaluation nécessite d’être revisitée. En 2010, aucun examen n’avait encore été effectué pour déterminer si les méthodes disponibles pouvaient être appliquées à l’évaluation de la balance bénéfice-risque des médicaments dans le cadre réglementaire, et si oui à quel point elles seraient applicable. L’objectif de cette thèse a donc été d’identifier la ou les méthodes pouvant être théoriquement utilisées pour ce type d’évaluation, puis de les confronter à des cas concrets afin d’en déterminer leur applicabilité. Les résultats de l’évaluation des méthodes ont montrés que les méthodes les plus appropriées sont la méthode d’aide à la décision multicritère (MCDA) ainsi que ses variantes. Les résultats de l'application pratique de la méthode MCDA ont indiqué que cette méthode peut être utilisé dans les scénarios communs d'enregistrement en Europe. Cependant il convient de noter que cette méthode ne fournit ni une recette « prête à l'emploi » pour exécuter cette évaluation ni une réponse directe
The benefit-risk evaluation of new medicines plays a central role in safeguarding public health. Nevertheless, it seems that the benefit-risk evaluation calls for further improvement. In 2010, no review had been performed of how available benefit-risk assessment methods could be applied for a regulatory benefit-risk assessment and how feasible that would be when facing real-life cases. The objective of this thesis has thus been to identify method(s) that could be theoretically used for such an assessment, and then to confront it/them to real-life cases, in order to determine their applicability. The results of the methods evaluation showed that the most suitable methods for a regulatory benefit-risk assessment of medicinal products are the MCDA method and the MCDA based methods. The results of the practical application of the MCDA indicated that the method could be used for medicinal products registered through a common registration scenario in Europe. However it should be noted that this method provides neither a “ready-made” recipe to perform an assessment nor a direct answer

The most important aspect in the financial decsion making in buying the property is the financing method, price of the property and how much you need to borrow. The goal of this thesis is to show to the reader at least a basics theories of entering and process of the public procurement and formulate complex process from the assign of procurement through the realization to methods of financing. The goal is the utilization of the methods of multicriterial variants evaluation when evaluating particular products, financing options for the specific property won in the public procurement and researching suitability of individual multicriterial methods. The goal is theoretical description and practical analysis of fundamental mortgage loans with fixed rate and also description of today's mortgage market. The core of this thesis is the chapter with results of the multicriterial optimalization used to the organization and evaluation of individual variants for selected type of loan. In the onclusion is chosen generally the best product.

The aim of my thesis is using a questionnaire to find out level of insurance, habits and preferences of respondents in selected areas of insurance. These results will also be used as input data for the analysis of the insurance products of selected insurance companies. Offers of insurance company will be assessed by several criteria. The formed options will be evaluate by multi-criteria methods for evaluation of alternatives. Insurance offer will be assessed on the basis of model examples using the above mentioned methods. There will be analyzed the products of the compulsory insurance, travel insurance and property insurance. The output of my thesis will be identification of the best deals in each type of insurance and also in general. In addition, there will be created a sequence of other insurance companies with their percentage ranking. It will also be evaluated the insurance company, which respondents considered as the best and also those for which they usually have their insurance contracts. Analyzed insurance companies will be selected on the basis of survey results.

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a classificação resultante do emprego da Avaliação de Multicritérios, utilizando a técnica AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process), em ambiente SIG, para o mapeamento de áreas suscetíveis à escorregamento no município de Angra dos Reis. O estudo exigiu duas imagens Landsat 7 TM, obtidas respectivamente em 14/08/2006 e 17/06/2005. O produto gerado será comparado com os dados já existentes disponibilizados pela Defesa Civil do município, servindo de auxílio às ações no processo de gestão territorial, dando suporte ao planejamento e execução de projetos ambientais e de engenharia e apoio a tomadas de decisões governamentais, evitando novos desastres como os ocorridos em 31/12/2009 e 01/01/2010.
The present work has like goal analyze the result classification of the use of the Advanced Evaluation, using the AHP tecniche (Analytic Hierarchy Process), at SIG ambience to map the susceptible slipping areas of Angra dos Reis City. The study demanded two Landsat 7 TM images, respectively took in 08/14/2006 and 06/17/2005. The produced result will be compared with the available information already given by the Defesa Civil oh the city, serving like aid to the process of land management actions, giving support on the planning and execution of environmental projects and help on taken governmental decisions, avoiding new disasters like the ones in 12/31/2009 and 01/01/2010.

The surveillance of geographic borders and critical infrastructures using limited sensor capability has always been a challenging task in many homeland security applications. While geographic borders may be very long and may go through isolated areas, critical assets may be large and numerous and may be located in highly populated areas. As a result, it is virtually impossible to secure each and every mile of border around the country, and each and every critical infrastructure inside the country. Most often, a compromise must be made between the percentage of border or critical asset covered by surveillance systems and the induced cost. Although threats to homeland security can be conceived to take place in many forms, those regarding illegal penetration of the air, land, and maritime domains under the cover of day-to-day activities have been identified to be of particular interest. For instance, the proliferation of drug smuggling, illegal immigration, international organized crime, resource exploitation, and more recently, modern piracy, require the strengthening of land border and maritime awareness and increasingly complex and challenging national security environments. The complexity and challenges associated to the above mission and to the protection of the homeland may explain why a methodology enabling the design and optimization of distributed detection systems architectures, able to provide accurate scanning of the air, land, and maritime domains, in a specific geographic and climatic environment, is a capital concern for the defense and protection community. This thesis proposes a methodology aimed at addressing the aforementioned gaps and challenges. The methodology particularly reformulates the problem in clear terms so as to facilitate the subsequent modeling and simulation of potential operational scenarios. The needs and challenges involved in the proposed study are investigated and a detailed description of a multidisciplinary strategy for the design and optimization of detection architectures in terms of detection performance and cost is provided. This implies the creation of a framework for the modeling and simulation of notional scenarios, as well as the development of improved methods for accurate optimization of detection architectures. More precisely, the present thesis describes a new approach to determining detection architectures able to provide effective coverage of a given geographical environment at a minimum cost, by optimizing the appropriate number, types, and locations of surveillance and detection systems. The objective of the optimization is twofold. First, given the topography of the terrain under study, several promising locations are determined for each sensor system based on the percentage of terrain it is covering. Second, architectures of sensor systems able to effectively cover large percentages of the terrain at minimal costs are determined by optimizing the number, types and locations of each detection system in the architecture. To do so, a modified Genetic Algorithm and a modified Particle Swarm Optimization are investigated and their ability to provide consistent results is compared. Ultimately, the modified Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm is used to obtain a Pareto frontier of detection architectures able to satisfy varying customer preferences on coverage performance and related cost.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008.
Committee Chair: Adjo Amekudzi; Committee Member: Catherine Ross; Committee Member: Josias Zietsman; Committee Member: Michael Meyer; Committee Member: Randall Guensler.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze a management problem in the organization Bohemians 1905, a.s. and submit recommendations to the board of the club for strategic choice options how to solve the management problem. The correct formulation of the problem will need to be analyze the current situation, put it in a strategic context and find the cause of the problem. This is done by Kepner-Tregoe methodology, C-E diagram and cognitive map. It will also need to develop objective solutions, design criteria, specify the possible solutions and determine the consequences of various options due to the proposed set of criteria. This is done by the value tree, a combination of multi-criteria evaluation under risk and certainty, probability trees and decision matrices. As a form of multi-criteria evaluation will be used in a specific form of the transfer bridge in the form of aggregated criteria of price/performance ratio of the options that allows create a list of preferred options.

Because of the high penetration of private market, mobile operators are forced to focus on the services offered to another customer segment. Recently, corporate customers are seen as a promising segment and the competition within this segment is rising significantly. The growth of the competition and offer enhancement force companies to understand the decision making process in purchasing mobile services as much as possible. It is not only time consuming but also financially demanding for management even in small firms. This decision making process, that the companies go through, is the main topic of this Master Thesis. Main goal is neither to choose particular vendor of the mobile services nor to choose particular mobile tariff from the recent market offer but to inform about possibilities proposed by mathematical methods in the decision making area. In the Master Thesis different methods are suggested, compared and combined with the target to enable companies to make the right decision concerning their specific requirements.

This thesis aimed to investigate the relationship between Multicriteria Decision Making methods and decision strategies used by individuals in the selection process in a specific context. Therefore, as a basis we took the fundamental elements of three multiple criteria methods, PROMETHEE MACBETH and AHP, as well as the decision strategies: additive-compensatory, additive difference, elimination by aspects and conjunctive by Todd and Benbasat (1991), which allowed build six categories of analysis of this study: independent evaluations, dependent evaluations, summations, differences, eliminations and temporary choices. Therefore, a laboratory experiment was conducted in a multi-brand car shop so that the individual could perform the task of choosing an second-hand car independently: with the aid of one of Multicriteria Decision Aid (Visual PROMETHEE, M-MACBETH or TransparentChoice) and without the aid of the system, that is, only with the mind of the individual to guide the decision, being used the verbal think aloud protocol. Thus, 61 experimental subjects participated in the survey. The presentation of the results proved the relationship between two, additive difference and elimination by aspect, out of the four strategies proposed decisions by Todd and Benbasat (1991), since these two strategies were identified in the three systems. However, statistical tests showed a significant difference for the decision strategy elimination by aspect for the SADs TransparentChoice and for additive difference for SADs M-MACBETH and TransparentChoice. The two strategies, elimination by aspect and additive difference for individuals who received the aid only of SAD Visual PROMETHEE are similar to multicriteria decision making methods underlying to this system, in this case, PROMETHEE. Furthermore, we observed that there is a difference in the outcome of the decision when the individual used different SADs, M-MACBETH and Visual PROMETHEE, and that the latter facilitated more the process of choosing consumer goods, in this case, second-hand vehicles. In this context, the SADs served to confirm the assessment of characteristics previously made by the individual s cognitive decision-making system. Furthermore, we found that the individual, when solving a complex decision task, makes a number of connections that are not extended to systems. These findings were noticeable through the tactics that emerged during the verbalization process, i.e., indeterminacies concerning other attributes that were not being considered in the task at hand and compensation trade-offs that each experimental subject performed, which are not allowed by systems. These results suggest specific implications and generate new insights in future research. We believe that the objectives of this thesis were achieved, contributing to the academic and decision-making areas, since the results can serve as guidelines for decision making in the organizational context involving consumer goods purchasing decisions.
Esta tese teve como objetivo investigar a relação entre os métodos multicritérios de apoio à decisão e as estratégias de decisão utilizadas pelo indivíduo no processo de escolha em um contexto específico. Para tanto, tomaram-se como base os elementos fundamentais de três métodos multicritérios PROMETHEE, MACBETH e AHP, bem como as estratégias de decisão Compensatória Aditiva, Diferença Aditiva, Eliminação por Aspecto e Conjuntiva de Todd e Benbasat (1991), que permitiram construir as seis categorias de análise deste estudo: avaliações independentes, avaliações dependentes, somatórios, diferenças, eliminações e escolhas temporárias. Assim, foi conduzido um experimento em laboratório em uma loja de comércio de veículos multimarcas de forma que o indivíduo realizasse a tarefa de escolha do veículo usado de modo independente: com o auxílio de um dos Sistemas Multicritério de Apoio à Decisão (Visual PROMETHEE, M-MACBETH ou TransparentChoice) e sem o auxílio do sistema, ou seja, tendo somente a mente do indivíduo como guia da decisão, sendo utilizado o protocolo verbal Think Aloud. Dessa forma, participaram da pesquisa 61 sujeitos experimentais. A apresentação dos resultados comprovou a relação entre duas, Diferença Aditiva e Eliminação por Aspecto, das quatro estratégias de decisão propostas por Todd e Benbasat (1991), uma vez que essas duas estratégias foram identificadas nos três sistemas. Contudo, os testes estatísticos exibiram diferença significativa para a estratégia de decisão Eliminação por Aspecto para o SAD TransparentChoice e para a Diferença Aditiva para os SADs M-MACBETH e TransparentChoice. As duas estratégias de Eliminação por Aspecto e de Diferença Aditiva para os indivíduos que receberam o auxílio somente do SAD Visual PROMETHEE são semelhantes ao método multicritério de apoio à decisão subjacente a esse sistema, nesse caso, o PROMETHEE. Ainda, observou-se que há diferença no resultado da decisão quando o indivíduo utilizou diferentes SADs, o M-MACBETH e o Visual PROMETHEE, e que esse último foi o que mais facilitou o processo de escolha para bens de consumo, nesse caso, veículos usados. Nesse contexto, os SADs serviram para fins de confirmação de avaliações de atributos previamente já realizados pelo sistema cognitivo do decisor. Ademais, constatou-se que o indivíduo, ao resolver uma tarefa de decisão complexa, faz uma série de conexões que não são extensivas aos sistemas. Esses achados foram perceptíveis por meio das táticas que emergiram durante o processo de verbalização, ou seja, indeterminações consoantes a outros atributos que não estavam sendo considerados na tarefa em questão e compensações, trade-offs que cada sujeito experimental realizou, os quais não são permitidos pelos sistemas. Esses resultados sugerem implicações específicas e geração de novos insights em pesquisas futuras. Acredita-se que os objetivos desta tese foram alcançados, contribuindo para a área acadêmica e para área de processo decisório, uma vez que os resultados podem servir de orientações para a tomada de decisão no contexto organizacional envolvendo decisões de compra de bens de consumo.

Este trabalho apresenta o processo de seleção de estratégia de reconversão industrial de uma pequena refinaria de petróleo no Sul do Brasil através da aplicação de uma modelagem integrada, utilizando um método multicriterial e programação matemática. Neste estudo foram identificadas linhas de negócio potencialmente aplicáveis à realidade da companhia e definido um conjunto de critérios de análise abrangendo as três dimensões da sustentabilidade empresarial: econômica, social e ambiental. Com base na avaliação da importância relativa de cada critério, atribuída por um grupo de decisores, e no desempenho das linhas de negócio em cada um dos critérios, foi aplicado método fuzzy TOPSIS para análise e ordenação das linhas de negócio. As informações resultantes desta análise, juntamente com dados econômicos objetivos, foram utilizadas em um modelo de programação linear inteira para avaliar portfólios viáveis de linhas de negócio, identificando estratégias candidatas à implementação na refinaria. O desempenho global de cada estratégia candidata, obtido mediante agregação dos desempenhos individuais das linhas de negócio e calculado conforme método fuzzy TOPSIS, foi analisado através de ferramentas gráficas, de modo a gerar elementos para subsidiar a seleção da melhor estratégia de reconversão. Os resultados obtidos demonstraram a eficiência da abordagem proposta, no sentido de facilitar o entendimento e a exploração da situação problema e, assim, oferecer um adequado suporte à tomada de decisão.
This dissertation presents a selection process of industrial reconversion strategy in a small oil refinery in southern Brazil by applying an integrated modeling approach, using a multicriteria and a mathematical programming method. Potentially performing business lines were identified, as well a set of criteria covering the three dimensions of corporate sustainability: economic, social and environmental. Based on the relative importance evaluation of each criteria given by a group of decision-makers, and on performance of the business lines in each of the criteria, fuzzy TOPSIS method was applied for analysis and sorting of business lines. The information resulting from this analysis, along with objective economic data, were used in integer linear programming model to evaluate effective portfolios of business lines, identifying candidate strategies to implement in the refinery. Fuzzy TOPSIS is used to generate overall performance scores of each candidate strategy, aggregating the individual performance of the business lines. The sustainability assessment was analyzed through graphical tools in order to generate information to support the selection of the best strategy for the industrial reconversion. The results demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed approach to facilitate the understanding and exploitation of the problem situation and thus offer adequate support to decision making.

Orientador: Mara de Andrade Marinho
Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Agrícola
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Resumo: Erosão é um tema complexo que envolve aspectos físicos, ambientais, econômicos, sociais e políticos. Nos últimos 100 anos de historia, o principal enfoque da pesquisa em erosão esteve centrado principalmente nos aspectos físicos e só mais recentemente o foco se ampliou, incluindo os aspectos ambientais, econômicos e sociais. Partindo do pressuposto de que é possível o uso conjugado de métodos de consulta Ad-Hoc e de Análise Multicriterial, o presente trabalho teve por objetivo geral empregar essa abordagem no desenvolvimento de uma proposição metodológica para avaliação da suscetibilidade dos solos à erosão. Um objetivo específico foi utilizar dados de rotina de perfis de solos disponíveis nos relatórios dos levantamentos pedológicos. Para desenvolvimento de função classificatória da suscetibilidade à erosão, foram aplicados os métodos multicriteriais referidos por ELECTRE II, CP e CGT, considerando 4 cenários de pesos: media geométrica, máximo, mínimo e moda. Para desenvolvimento de função agregativa e de um indicador de suscetibilidade à erosão (Ise), foi utilizado o método MAVT via ajustes de funções de valores, que foram aplicadas aos dados secundários de solos. Os resultados da aplicação dos métodos ELECTRE II, CP e CGT foram convergentes, com uma correlação média de 0,854, destacando-se a ordem dos NEOSSOLOS (maior suscetibilidade) e a dos ORGANOSSOLOS (menor suscetibilidade). O indicador de suscetibilidade à erosão qualificou um PLINTOSSOLO PETRICO como sendo o mais suscetível (Ise= 57,4%) e um ORGANOSSOLO HAPLICO como sendo o menos suscetível à erosão (Ise= 34,5%). Conclui-se que a metodologia desenvolvida permitiu avaliar a suscetibilidade do solo à erosão sob diferentes aspectos (classificador e indicador de suscetibilidade) e níveis de generalização taxonômica, com uso de dados secundários
Abstract: Erosion is a complex theme which involves physical, environmental, social, and political aspects. For the last 100 years, the central goal of the research in this area was the physical aspects of soil erosion, and only more recently this focus has been distended to include the environmental, economical and social aspects. From the assumption that is possible to combine Ad-Hoc methods with Multicriterial Analysis, this work intended to employ that approach to develop a methodology for evaluating the soil susceptibility to erosion. A specific purpose was to use legacy data available on soil surveys reports. To develop a classificatory function of the soil susceptibility to erosion, the ELECTRE II, CP e CGT multicriterials methods were applied considering four scenarios: geometrical average, maximum, minimum, and mode. To develop an aggregative function and an indicator of soil erosion susceptibility (Ise), it was employed the MAVT method via adjusting values functions, which were applied to the legacy soils data. The results acquired from the application of the ELECTRE II, CP and CGT methods were convergent, with an average correlation of 0,854, stressing NEOSSOLOS (major susceptibility) and ORGANOSSOLOS (minor susceptibility). The indicator of soil erosion susceptibility qualified a PLINTOSSOLO PETRICO as being the most susceptible (Ise= 57,4%) and an ORGANOSSOLO HAPLICO as being the least susceptible (Ise= 34,5%). In conclusion, the developed methodology allowed to evaluate soil susceptibility to erosion in relation to different aspects (classificatory and susceptibility indicator) and levels of taxonomic generalization, with use of legacy data
Doutorado
Agua e Solo
Doutor em Engenharia Agrícola

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The farm production systems, in general, have a certain degree of complexity because it involves a set of variables that the farmer can not always control, and requires a decision-making. The farmer does it considering his rationality based on his objectives, perception, intuition, and information. Even with all these precautions, it s not always easy to make those decisions, and so they often need some support or some tool to assist them, even more when the production systems involve practices and/or organic production processes or with technological innovation. In these cases, the farmer needs to involve a number of internal and external elements to the rural property, interact with nature and know how to use it for the benefit of the production unit. A number of studies have been conducted to improve organic production processes, emphasizing its importance and its social, environmental and economic benefits, and the opportunities it brings. Potato organic production has evolved, but, being a system still in consolidation, it faces bottlenecks in production and in marketing, which should be studied deeper. Following this idea, the study aimed to construct models that aggregate different systems evaluation criteria of organic potato developed by family farmers from southern Rio Grande do Sul state. The study had the participation of a group that has been in the research project Rede de Referência (GRR) of Embrapa Clima Temperado, and another group out of the network (GFRR), associated with Cooperativas Sul Ecológica, Arpa-Sul and Coopar. To evaluate the organic potato system, the study used the decision aid multicriteria tool, which allows the inclusion of the subjective view of the actors involved in the decision-making context through formation of a mental frame of reference (QRM), composed of their personal beliefs, assumptions, values and preferences, through modeling criteria construction in a participatory manner. The study showed, in general, that the models constructed (1-GRR and 2-GFRR) do not differ much from the production practices adopted in each group. Nevertheless, the differences occurred in the levels of impact of actions, and in the establishment of different weights between the models, so the final result in order of preference of evaluation criteria was different. For GRR the criterion potato size was the most important, whereas for GFRR was the criterion production risks. When evaluated with four other organic potato production systems (A, B, C, and D), the two models performances were very close. In model 1 the scores were 72.6; 70.2; 4.1, and 10.9, and in model 2, 71.7; 71.3; 2.7, and 5.0, respectively. In the assessment of each group, the farmers agreed with the results obtained in the models, proving their validity and robustness against the models constructed.
Os sistemas de produção agrícola, de uma forma geral, se caracterizam por certo grau de complexidade, porque envolvem um conjunto de variáveis que nem sempre são controláveis pelo agricultor e que exigem a tomada de decisão, que o faz considerando sua racionalidade, baseado em seus objetivos, percepção, intuição e informação. Mesmo com todas estas precauções, nem sempre são decisões fáceis de serem tomadas e que, muitas vezes, necessitam de algum apoio ou alguma ferramenta que lhes auxilie, ainda mais quando os sistemas de produção envolvem práticas e/ou processos de produção orgânica ou com alguma inovação tecnológica. Nesses casos, o agricultor necessita envolver uma série de elementos internos e externos à propriedade, interagir com a natureza e saber usá-la em benefício da unidade de produção. Estudos vêm sendo realizados para aperfeiçoar os processos de produção orgânica, enfatizando sua importância e seus benefícios sociais, ambientais, econômicos e as oportunidades que ela traz. A produção orgânica de batatas tem evoluído, porém, por ser um sistema ainda em consolidação, enfrenta pontos de estrangulamento na produção e na comercialização, que devem ser estudados com maior profundidade. Neste sentido, o estudo teve por objetivo construir modelos que agreguem os diferentes critérios de avaliação de sistemas de batata orgânica, desenvolvido por agricultores familiares da região Sul do Rio Grande do Sul. Contou com um grupo que vem atuando no projeto de pesquisa Rede de Referência (GRR) da Embrapa Clima Temperado e outro fora da rede (GFRR), associados às Cooperativas Sul Ecológica, Arpa-Sul e Coopar. Para avaliar os sistemas de produção de batata orgânica o estudo utilizou a ferramenta Multicritério de Apoio à Decisão (MCDA), que permite a inserção da visão subjetiva dos atores envolvidos no contexto decisório por intermédio da formação de um quadro de referência mental (QRM), composto por suas crenças pessoais, hipóteses, valores e preferências, através da construção da modelagem criterial de uma forma participativa. O estudo mostrou de uma maneira geral, que os modelos construídos (1-GRR e 2-GFRR), não se diferenciam muito em relação às práticas de produção adotadas em cada um dos grupos. No entanto, as diferenças ocorreram nos níveis de impacto das ações e no estabelecimento de pesos diferentes entre os modelos, de modo que o resultado final, na ordem de preferência dos critérios de avaliação, foi diferente. Para o GRR o critério tamanho da batata foi o mais importante, enquanto que para o GFRR foi o critério riscos de produção. Os dois modelos quando avaliados com outros quatro sistemas de produção de batata orgânica (A,B,C e D), tiveram desempenho muito próximos na avaliação global. No modelo 1, as pontuações foram de 72,6; 70,2; 4,1 e 10,9 e no modelo 2, 71,7; 71,3; 2,7 e 5,0 respectivamente. Na avaliação em cada um dos grupos, os agricultores concordaram com os resultados obtidos nos modelos, comprovando sua validade e robustez frente aos modelos construídos.

This research had the objective to analyze the performance in Resources, Market and Financial explaining the competitive advantage of companies according to the Resource Advantage Theory, of Textile companies sector listed at BM&FBovespa. It analyzed 21 companies in the textile sector divided into four segments. For measuring performance have been adopted the Multiple Criteria Decision Making based on ideal scenarios, TOPSIS and VIKOR. It was analyzed the performances based on four indicators for resources, three for market and four for the financial dimension. The results point to the non-verification of RA Theory in textile companies, considering what it recommends that a business advantage in resources and market tends to be higher in the financial dimension. In this way, the only company that observed this factor was the Arezzo. Likewise for verification of such a theory would be consistent that there was correlation between the rankings of different dimensions, which was not the case. It was concluded that competitive advantage in resources and in market of companies, Brazil’s textile sector does not contribute to high performance in financial dimension.
Esta investigación tuvo como objetivo analizar los recursos de rendimiento, de mercado y financiera explicar la ventaja competitiva del negocio de acuerdo con la teoría de las ventajas de recursos (RA Teoría) de las empresas textiles enumerados en la BM&FBovespa. Ellos analizaron un total de 21 empresas del sector textil se divide en cuatro segmentos. Para la medición de los métodos de rendimiento fueron adoptadas para apoyar la toma multicriterio basado en ideal yescenarios, Topsis y Vikor. Se analizaron las actuaciones sobre la base de cuatro indicadores de recursos, tres para el mercado y cuatro para la dimensión financiera. Los resultados de la encuesta apuntan a la no verificación de la RA Teoría en las empresas textiles, teniendo en cuenta lo que se recomienda que una ventaja de negocio en recursos y el mercado tiende a ser mayor en la dimensión financiera. Por lo tanto la única compañía encontró que este factor fue el Arezzo. Del mismo modo para la verificación de tal teoría sería coherente que no había correlación entre la clasificación de diferentes dimensiones, que no era el caso. Por lo tanto, se concluye que la ventaja competitiva de los recursos y de Brasil, las empresas del sector textil de mercado no contribuye al desempeño financiero superior de las empresas.
Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo analisar o desempenho em recursos, mercado e financeiro que explicam a vantagem competitiva empresarial de acordo com a Resource Advantage Theory (RA Theory), de empresas do setor têxtil listadas na BM&FBovespa. Foram analisadas um total de 21 empresas do setor têxtil divididas em quatro segmentos. Para a mensuração do desempenho foram adotados os métodos de apoio a decisão multicritério baseados em cenários ideais TOPSIS e VIKOR. Foram analisados os desempenhos com base em quatro indicadores para recursos, três para mercado e quatro para a dimensão financeira. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam para a não verificação da RA Theory em empresas têxteis, considerando o que se preconiza de que uma empresa em vantagem em recursos e mercado tende a ser superior na dimensão financeira. Desta forma a única empresa que verificou este fator foi a Arezzo. De mesmo modo para verificação da referida teoria seria coerente que existisse correlação entre os rankings das diferentes dimensões, o que não se verificou. Assim conclui-se que a vantagem competitiva em recursos e em mercado de empresas do setor têxtil do Brasil não contribui para superioridade no desempenho financeiro das empresas.