Scrutinizing the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)

Abstract

This work will focus on making a review of one of the techniques to establish hierarchies between alternatives, which appears very frequently, although erroneously, in the literature dedicated to multicriteria methods. It is about scrutinizing within the bowels of analytical hierarchical processes (AHP). It will be noted that it will not be necessary to make an exhaustive review to discover the great weaknesses that are present under this much referenced technique, faults so obvious that it is difficult to understand how this method has been used so often. These failures start from their foundations, their axioms, from a misinterpretation of mathematical statements, and especially, from an inappropriate use of the tool. From all the above, the objective of this work is to analyze the fundamental premises of analytical hierarchical processes and demonstrate that they are not only techniques that have very obvious flaws but are also used erroneously in decision making for which they are not at all appropriate.