Multiple criteria group decision-making with generalized interval-valued fuzzy numbers based on signed distances and incomplete weights

Decision-making information provided by decision makers is often imprecise or uncertain, due to lack of data, time pressure, or the decision makers’ limited attention and information-processing capabilities. Interval-valued fuzzy sets are associated with greater imprecision and more ambiguity than are ordinary fuzzy sets. For these reasons, this paper presents a signed distance-based method for handling fuzzy multiple-criteria group decision-making problems in which individual assessments are provided as generalized interval-valued trapezoidal fuzzy numbers, and the information about criterion weights are not precisely but partially known. First, concerning the relative importance of decision makers and the group consensus of fuzzy opinions, all individual decision opinions were aggregated into group opinions using a hybrid average with weighted averaging and signed distance-based ordered weighted averaging operations. Next, considering a decision situation with incomplete weight information of criteria, an integrated programming model was developed to estimate criterion weights and to order the priorities of various alternatives based on signed distances. In addition, several deviation variables were introduced to mitigate the effect of inconsistent evaluations on the importance of criteria. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed method is illustrated by a numerical example of a multi-criteria supplier selection problem. Furthermore, a comparative analysis with other methods was conducted to validate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed methodology.