Using Interactive Multiobjective Methods to Solve Multiple Attribute Decision Making Problems

Multiple attribute decision making (MADM) addresses the problem of choosing an optimum choice containing the highest degree of satisfaction from a set of alternatives which are characterized in terms of their attributes. In order to make a decision or choose a best alternative, a decision maker (DM) is often asked to provide his/her preferences either on alternatives or on the relative weights of attributes or on both of them. In this paper some basic principles from data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used in order to extract the necessary information for solving an MADM problem. The traditional DEA model does not include a decision maker's (DM) preference structure. An interesting method to incorporate preference information, without necessary prior judgment, is the use of an interactive decision making technique that encompasses both DEA and multi-objective linear programming (MOLP). To illustrate the model capability, the proposed methodology is applied to a data set consisting of the 20 Bank branches.