Welcome to BPMSG – July 2019

Concepts, Methods and Tools to manage Business Performance

Dear Friends, dear Visitors,

We released a major update of my free AHP online software. It is now running under PHP 7 and should be noticeable faster than before. Beside some under-the-hood improvement a few new features were added. For more details read my post here.

As a new tool on my website I added a collection of my literature about multi-criteria decision making and AHP. It is available for everyone under the menu point Tools -> Literature. I am using the open source software package Wikindx5. You can browse or search for articles, authors, journals etc. Over time I will fill it up with more article and other research contributions. You can also register as a user and add your own literature to share with others.

Wikindx allows to include citations into a blog. As an example, the following reference is taken from Wikindx:

Many thanks to all donors, supporting this website. Unfortunately, over the last months I didn’t receive many donations. The annual invoice from my hosting provider is expected to come soon, therefore, please continue to support my effort with a small donation, especially when you use my free template or online software.

For now, please enjoy your visit on the site and feel free to leave a comment – it is always appreciated. And keep in mind: Better to be approximately right than precisely wrong.

Klaus

Klaus D. Goepel, Singapore, July 2019

BPMSG stands for Business Performance Management Singapore. As of now, it is a non-commercial website, and information is shared for educational purposes. Please see licensing conditions and terms of use.

About the author

Welcome to BPMSG – March 2019

Dear Friends, dear Visitors,

here is the link to the ISAHP 2018 papers and authors. From there you might download my presentation Implementation of an Online Software Tool for the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP-OS). It is a short conference paper about my free AHP online software, the complete article – showing was published as

Goepel, K.D. (2018). Implementation of an Online Software Tool for the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP-OS). International Journal of the Analytic Hierarchy Process, Vol. 10 Issue 3 2018, pp 469-487

https://doi.org/10.13033/ijahp.v10i3.590

My second contribution was a presentation about  Judgment Scales of the Analytical Hierarchy Process –The Balanced Scale. As above, it is a short part of a pubication about AHP scales:

Goepel, K.D. (2018). Comparison of Judgment Scales of the Analytical Hierarchy Process — A New Approach. International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making, published Dec 11, 2018

https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219622019500044

Over the last couple of months my AHP excel template was updated to show errors for the resulting weights based on the work of Tomashevskii (2014, 2015). You find more details in my post from September 2018. I still have to implement the same calculation into AHP-OS.

Many thanks to all donors, supporting this website. Unfortunately, over the last months I didn’t receive many donations. The annual invoice from my hosting provider is expected to come soon, therefore, please continue to support my effort with a small donation, especially when you use my free template or online software.

For now, please enjoy your visit on the site and feel free to leave a comment – it is always appreciated. And keep in mind: Better to be approximately right than precisely wrong.

Klaus

Klaus D. Goepel, Singapore, March 2019

BPMSG stands for Business Performance Management Singapore. As of now, it is a non-commercial website, and information is shared for educational purposes. Please see licensing conditions and terms of use.

4.8 (95.53%) 94 votes

 

Author: Klaus D. Goepel, BPMSG, Contact

Welcome to BPMSG – July 2018

Concepts, Methods and Tools to manage Business Performance

Dear Friends, dear Visitors,

the international symposium on the Analytic Hierarchy Process ISAHP 2018 in Hongkong is just finished, and I gave two presentations in the track Multi-criteria Decision Analysis – Methodology and Theory. One about the AHP balanced scale, and the other about the implementation of my AHP online software AHP-OS.

I’m thankful to the program committee to have received the most innovative idea reward for the paper about AHP-OS.

Some interesting papers were presented, for example Cardinal and Ordinal Inconsistency in pairwise Comparison Matrices by Konrad Kulakowski, or Coherency: an Innovation to Test Data Quality and Reduced Comparisons in the ANP by Orrin Cooper, just to mention two.

I will update you with the link, once the conference proceedings are published.
The conference gave participants also an opportunity for many discussions and the exchange of ideas.

Please continue to support my effort, either with a donation, or a rating to my web posts, which will help me as a feedback to my work.

For now, please enjoy your visit on the site and feel free to leave a comment – it is always appreciated. And don’t forget: Better to be approximately right than precisely wrong.

Klaus

Klaus D. Goepel,

Singapore, July 2018

BPMSG stands for Business Performance Management Singapore. As of now, it is a non-commercial website, and information is shared for educational purposes. Please see licensing conditions and terms of use.

Sensitivity Analysis in AHP

Sensitivity analysis is a fundamental concept in the effective use and implementation of quantitative decision models, whose purpose is to assess the stability of an optimal solution under changes in the parameters. (Dantzig)

Weighted sum model (Alternative Evaluation)

In AHP the preference Pi of alternative Ai is calculated using the following formula (weighted sum model):
(1)with  Wj the weight of criterion Cj, and aij the performance measure of alternative Ai with respect to criterion Cj. Performance values  are normalized.
(2)

Example


Table 1

Sensitivity analysis will answer two questions:

  • Which is the most critical criterion, and
  • Which is the most critical performance measure,

changing the ranking between two alternatives?

Continue reading Sensitivity Analysis in AHP

Welcome to BPMSG – Feb 2017

Concepts, Methods and Tools to manage Business Performance

Dear friends, dear visitors,

Using Google search for my own website, I could see a message like Your website is not mobile friendy. It was really time to update my website theme in order to make it better readable for visitors using their smart phone or tablet.

Now you see the new design using the standard wordpress theme from 2015. I simplified the menu structure to the categories:

  • AHP Articles – Material and Information about the Analytic Hierarchy Process
  • Other Articles – Material and Information about Business Performance
  • Tools – Links to my online tools, like the AHP online system and excel templates
  • Other – Posts related to other topics
  • About – Information about the author
  • Feedback – A place where you can leave your feedback as comments
  • Contact – A web form to contact me personally via e-mail

I hope with these changes navigation on the site is much easier, and you can find required information in shorter time.

Again, a big Thank You to all donors! Please note that the website is a non-commercial website for educational purposes. Your donation is used to cover running costs like web hosting, antispam services etc. PLEASE, help to support this website with a small donation. I spend a lot of time, sharing my knowledge for free. Thank you in advance!

For now, please enjoy your visit on the site and feel free to leave a comment – it is always appreciated.

Klaus D. Goepel,

Singapore, Februar 2017

BPMSG stands for Business Performance Management Singapore. As of now, it is a non-commercial website, and information is shared for educational purposes. Please see licensing conditions and terms of use.

Please give credit or a link to my site, if you use parts in your work, or make a small donation to support my effort to maintain this website.

About the author

AHP Online Software – Latest Update 2016-10-29

Based on the request from some users I have modified the result display of my AHP-OS online software. Beside the resulting priorities it is now possible to see the underlying consolidated decision matrix, which results from the aggregation of individual judgments (AIJ) using the geometric mean.

Decision Hierarchies

For decision hierarchies the result page shows the resulting local and global priorities (overall result) in hierarchical form, and the global priorities in descending order in a bar graph.

Then, in a breakdown by nodes, consolidated priorities, consolidated decision matrix and the priorities of individual participants are shown:

ahp-result
As in this example, the consolidated matrix for one participant is the same as the AHP decision matrix.

Alternative Evaluation

For alternative evaluation the breakdown is done by criteria. It shows the consolidated preferences for all alternatives with respect to each of the criteria:

ahp-result1

In this example the House A from the alternative houses A, B, C has the best match with respect to the criterion “Size”.

Outlook

I am now working on the extension to let you download the complete set of input values, i.e. all underlying decision matrices, to excel. In the current version only the resulting AHP priorities are available.

Welcome to BPMSG – May 2014

Concepts, Methods and Tools to manage Business Performance

Dear Friends, dear Visitors,

The latest beta version of my AHP online software (AHP-OS) has now additional features to manage complete AHP projects. AHP stands for Analytic Hierarchy Process, and is a decision support tool.  To use the full functionality, please register and log in; it’s all free.

You can store complete decision hierarchies, use them to estimate the weights of criteria and sub-criteria and evaluate up to seven decision alternatives.

AHP is also helpful to support group decision making; participants can input their individual judgments and a consolidated group result is calculated. I have prepared a practical example, where you can participate, input your judgments and view the overall group results and consensus. Just click on the link and try it out.

The development is still continuing. I am further optimizing the handling and plan to implement additional analysis, especially for group decision making. Bookmark the page and revisit from time to time to get the latest updates.

Now please enjoy your visit on the site and feel free to give me feedback – it is always appreciated.

Klaus D. Goepel,

Singapore, May 2014

BPMSG stands for Business Performance Management Singapore. As of now, it is a non-commercial website, and information is shared for educational purposes. Please see licensing conditions and terms of use. Please give credit or a link to my site, if you use parts in your website or blog.

About the author

A new Consensus Indicator in Group Decision Making with the Analytic Hierarchy Process

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is one of the multi-criteria decision making methods helping decision makers in rational decision making using a mathematical method. AHP as a practical tool can be especially helpful, when making group decisions.

Download (pdf):

Klaus D. Goepel, (2013). Implementing the Analytic Hierarchy Process as a Standard Method for Multi-Criteria Decision Making In Corporate Enterprises – A New AHP Excel Template with Multiple Inputs, Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Analytic Hierarchy Process 2013

Group Decision Making

Group decisions are often made because decision problems can become very complex by nature; they could require special expertise and complementing skills, as they cannot be provided by a single person. Another reason could be the wish to spread responsibility or to get a higher commitment from a team for necessary actions as a consequence of the decision to be made.

Group-DecisionThere are different possible approaches to come to a decision. In the ideal case we get a consensus – an agreement through discussion and debate – but often a decision is a compromise. Group members readjust their opinions and give up some demands. Another way is a majority vote or a single leader’s final decision, based on his position and power.

In any case a possible disadvantage is that during group discussions a strong individual takes the lead, suppressing or ignoring others’ opinions and ideas (dominance), or people don’t want to speak up and conform to whatever is said (conformance).

Table 1: Reasons for group decision making and group decision approach

Reasons for group decisions Group Decision Approach
Special expertise
Subject matter experts
Complementing skills
Different viewpoints/departments
Spread of responsibility
Board, committee members
Higher commitment
Team decision
Consensus
Agreement through discussion and debate
Compromise
Readjustment, giving up some – demands
Majority vote
Opinion of majority
Single leader’s final decision

 The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in Group Decision Making

When using AHP with its questionnaire, these problems can be avoided. Each member of the group has to make judgment by doing a pairwise comparison of criteria in the categories and subcategories of the hierarchical structured decision problem. Advantages are:

  • It is a structured approach to find weights for criteria and sub-criteria in a hierarchically structured decision problem.
  • All participants’ inputs count; no opinion or judgment is ignored and all group members have to fill-out the questionnaire.
  • Participants’ evaluation can be weighted by predefined (and agreed) criteria, like expertise, responsibility, or others, to reflect the actual involvement of decision makers.
  • The consolidated group result is calculated using a mathematical method; it is objective, transparent and reflects the inputs of all decision makers.

From practical experience, especially the last point results in a usually high acceptance of the group result. Aggregation of individual judgments (AIJ) in AHP can be done using the geometric mean: each matrix element of the consolidated decision matrix is the geometric mean of the corresponding elements of the decision makers’ individual decision matrices. The outcome – consolidated weights or priorities for criteria in a category – can be used as group result for the calculation of global priorities in the decision problem.

AHP Consensus Indicator

Although mathematically it is always possible to calculate a group result, the question remains, whether a calculated group result makes sense in all cases. For example, if you have two totally opposite judgments for two criteria, an aggregation will result in equal weights (50/50) for both criteria. In fact, there is no consensus, and equal weights may result in a deadlock situation to solve a decision problem.

Therefore, it will be necessary to analyze individual judgments, and find a measure of consensus for the aggregated group result. We use Shannon entropy and its partitioning in two independent components  (alpha and beta diversity) to derive a new AHP consensus indicator. Originating from information theory, the concept of Shannon entropy is well established in biology for the measurement of biodiversity. Instead of relative abundance of species in different habitats, we analyse the priority distribution of criteria among different decision makers.

Further Reading, References and Examples of Practical Applications

The AHP consensus indicator is calculated in my free AHP Excel template. Group analysis by partitioning of  Shannon entropy in alpha and beta entropy can be done by transferring the calculated priorities (AHP priority vector) from each decision maker to the BPMSG Diversity calculator.

Feedback and Comments are welcome!

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Updated AHP Excel Template Version 8.5.2013

In this latest update I followed the several requests to extend the number of participants (decision makers); you now can use the template for up to 20 participants. In addition the weight of individual participants can be adjusted for the aggregation of individual judgments (AIJ). For example, if you have one expert in the group, you might want to give him/her evaluation a  x-time higher importance than the rest of participants. Then you simply change the weight in the input sheet from 1 to x. The calculation is done using the weighted geometric mean:

with cij = element of the consolidated decision matrix, aij(k) element of the decision matrix of participant k.

Kindly let me know in case you find any problem with this new version. Feedback is appreciated always! You can download this latestes version from my AHP template download page.

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Updated AHP Excel Template Version 08.02.13

An updated version of my AHP Excel template for multiple inputs is now available as version 08.02.13. Beside the extension from 8 to 10 criteria and from 7 to 20 participants some new features have been added. In the past it was sometimes difficult for participants to achieve a low consistency ratio. Now inconsistent comparisons in the input sheet will be highlighted, if the required consistency level is exceeded.  The level of consistency needed (“alpha” in the summary sheet) can also be changed from 0.1 (standard rule of thumb from Saaty) to higher values, for example 0.15 or 0.2. In addition another scale for the judgment can be chosen. For my projects I made good experience with the balanced scale.

A new feature is the consensus index. If you have more than 1 participant and do the group aggregation (select participant “0”), the consensus index is an indicator, how homogenous the judgment within the group was done. Zero percent means no consensus, all participants put their preference on different criteria;  100% means full consensus. Here the changes in detail:

Summary sheet

  • Number of criteria increased from 8 to 10
  • Number of participants increased from 7 to 20
  • Different scales added:
  1. Linear standard scale
  2. Log
  3. Sqrt
  4. InvLin
  5. Balanced
  6. Power
  7. Geom.
  • Alpha – allows to adjust consistency threshold (0.1 default)
  • Consensus indicator for group aggregation added
  • Geometric Consistency Index CGI added

Input sheets

  • Consistency ratio is calculated on each input sheet.
  • Priorities are calculated and shown based on RGMM (row geometric mean method)
  • Top three inconsistent pairwise comparisons highlighted (if CR>alpha)

Known Issues

Thanks to feedback from Rick, sometimes there seems to be a problem with the correct display of weights beside the criteria in the summary sheet. If you face this problem, unprotect sheet summary. Select weigths (O18:O27). Click “conditional formating”, “clear rules”,”clear rules from selected cells”. Then the values will be displayed correctly, and you can format them in the way you want. It is a strange effect; it only appears on one of my PCs, on the other it works fine. I uploaded a modified version, but not sure whether it works for everyone.

I appreciate any feedback! Please download the latest version from my AHP template download page.

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