Application of Operational Approaches to Solving Decision Making Problem Using Z-Numbers

Z-number is applied to solve multi-criteria decision making problem and two approaches to decision making with Z-information are considered, based on Expected utility theory by using Z-numbers.

Abstract

The combination of fuzzy logic tools and multi-criteria decision making has a great relevance in literature. Compared with the classical fuzzy number, Z-number has more ability to describe the human knowledge. It can describe both restraint and reliability. Prof. L. Zadeh introduced the concept of Z-numbers to describe the uncertain information which is a more generalized notion closely related to reliability. Use of Z-information is more adequate and intuitively meaningful for formalizing information of a decision making problem. In this paper, Z-number is applied to solve multi-criteria decision making problem. In this paper, we consider two approaches to decision making with Z-information. The first approach is based on converting the Z-numbers to crisp number to determine the priority weight of each alternative. The second approach is based on Expected utility theory by using Z-numbers. To illustrate a validity of suggested approaches to decision making with Z-information the numerical examples have been used.