Multiple Criteria Decision Support in Engineering Design

Multiple Criteria Decision Support in Engineering Design examines some of the underlying issues and related modelling strategies, with a view to exploring the rich potential of a generalised multiple-criteria approach to design decision-making. The arguments are supported by numerical examples. It can be argued that, within the classic monocriterion paradigm, the optimal solution is inarguably identified once the feasible alternatives are established and an objective function agreed on. It is only when conflict resolution is involved that decision-making truly becomes important, and many design situations exist where stated functional requirements may be in actual or potential conflict. The most preferred solution under such circumstances depends on the designer's or decision-maker's priorities, so that the chosen solution is based on a combination of technical possibilities and designer preferences. This book addresses the key concepts in multiple criteria decision-making and provides valuable insight into how such problems arise and can be solved, in the area of decision-making in general and in the domain of engineering design in particular.

A clear and comprehensive presentation that differs from the particularly complex nature of other such works Authors have a strong track record of work and development within this field Meets a definite need for support for teachers of MCDM techniques

Klappentext

Multiple Criteria Decision Support in Engineering Design examines some of the underlying issues and related modelling strategies, with a view to exploring the rich potential of a generalised multiple-criteria approach to design decision-making. The arguments are supported by numerical examples. It can be argued that, within the classic monocriterion paradigm, the optimal solution is inarguably identified once the feasible alternatives are established and an objective function agreed on. It is only when conflict resolution is involved that decision-making truly becomes important, and many design situations exist where stated functional requirements may be in actual or potential conflict. The most preferred solution under such circumstances depends on the designer's or decision-maker's priorities, so that the chosen solution is based on a combination of technical possibilities and designer preferences. This book addresses the key concepts in multiple criteria decision-making and provides valuable insight into how such problems arise and can be solved, in the area of decision-making in general and in the domain of engineering design in particular.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 1.1 What is Multiple Criteria Decision Making.- 1.2 Relevance of MCDM to Engineering Design.- 1.3 Design Selection vs Design Synthesis.- 1.4 Outline of the Book.- 2. MCDM and The Nature of Decision Making in Design.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 Pareto Optimality: What are the Options?.- 2.3 MCDM Methods and Some Key Terminology.- 2.4 Concluding Comments.- 3. Multiple Attribute Decision Making.- 3.1 Problem Formulations and Method Classification.- 3.2 Techniques for Weight Assignment.- 3.3 Typical MADM Methods and Applications.- 3.4 A Hierarchical Evaluation Process.- 3.5 Concluding Comments.- 4. Multiple Objective Decision Making.- 4.1 Multiobjective Optimisation and Method Classification.- 4.2 Techniques for Single-Objective Optimisation.- 4.3 Typical MODM Methods.- 4.4 Multiobjective Ship Design.- 4.5 Concluding Comments.- 5. Multiple Criteria Decision Making and Genetic Algorithms.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 The Mechanics of the Simple Genetic Algorithm.- 5.3 Multiple Criteria Genetic Algorithms.- 5.4 The Multiple Criteria Genetic Algorithm (MCGA): A Summary.- 5.5 A Numerical Example.- 5.6 An MCGA Schedule for a Generalised Job Shop.- 5.7 Concluding Comments.- 6. An Integrated Multiple Criteria Decision Support System.- 6.1 System Structure and Method Selection.- 6.2 Data Base and Model Base.- 6.3 A User Interface and Interactive Decision Making.- 6.4 Application of IMC-DSS.- 6.5 Concluding Comments.- 7. Past, Present and the Future.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 Case Studies.- 7.3 Concluding Comments.- References.- Topic Index.