A Fuzzy Analytic Network Process Approach

Abstract

This chapter describes the Analytical Network Process (ANP), a multi-criteria prioritization method to support decision making in complex and uncertain environments and suggests a fuzzy analytic network process (FANP) approach for prioritizing decision elements. The proposed fuzzy set theoretic method accommodates fuzziness in the supermatrix computations and thereby provides the opportunity to capture the uncertainty associated with the cumulative influence of each factor on every other factor with which it interacts. As its comparison to current methods demonstrates, the method successfully derives meaningful priorities from complex and uncertain decision structures.