Multi-criteria group decision-making using an extended EDAS method with interval type-2 fuzzy sets

Abstract

Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods are very useful in the real-world decision-making problems. We are usually confronted with the decision-making process in an uncertain environment, and the fuzzy set theory is an effi cient tool to handle this uncertainty. Interval type-2 fuzzy sets are one of the extensions of the fuzzy sets which are very fl exible to model an uncertain environment. This study is related to MCDM problems within the context of interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FSs). The evaluation based on distance from average solution (EDAS) method is a new and effi cient MCDM method, and assessment of alternatives in this method is based on the distance of them from average solution with respect to all criteria. In the EDAS method, each alternative has positive and negative distances which are used to determine the appraisal score of it. In this research, we present an extended EDAS method, which is named EDAS-IT2FSs, for dealing with multicriteria group decision-making problems with interval type-2 fuzzy sets. Basic concepts of interval type-2 fuzzy sets and the arithmetic operations of trapezoidal IT2FSs are used to develop the extended EDAS method. A numerical example of multi-criteria subcontractor evaluation problem is used to illustrate the process of using the extended EDAS method. The example involves eight subcontractors that need to be evaluated with respect to seven criteria. A comparison and a sensitivity analysis based on different sets of criteria weights are also performed to show the validity of the proposed method. The results of these analyses show the effi ciency and stability of the extended EDAS method.