A Decision Support System for Improving the Inconsistency in AHP

Abstract

This paper presents a DSS aimed at helping decision makers reduce and improve their inconsistency in eliciting their judgements when using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The DSS is designed for revising the judgements of a pairwise comparison matrix when the row geometric mean (RGM) is used as the prioritisation procedure and the geometric consistency index (GCI) as the inconsistency measure. The procedure employed guarantees that both the judgements and the derived priority vector will be close to the initial values. The DSS allows different degrees of participation of the decision maker in the review/modification of the judgements: no participation (automatic mode); prior participation (semi-automatic mode); and ongoing participation (interactive mode). The DSS also includes options to incorporate other requirements of the decision maker, such as limiting the modified values to an interval or improving inconsistency by modifying the lowest number of judgements, among others.