Multi-Criteria Decision Aid (MCDA) or Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods have received much attention from researchers and practitioners in evaluating, assessing and ranking alternatives across diverse industries. Among numerous MCDA/MCDM methods developed to solve real-world decision problems, the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) continues to work satisfactorily across different application areas. In this paper, we conduct a state-of-the-art literature survey to taxonomize the research on TOPSIS applications and methodologies. The classification scheme for this review contains 266 scholarly papers from 103 journals since the year 2000, separated into nine application areas: (1) Supply Chain Management and Logistics, (2) Design, Engineering and Manufacturing Systems, (3) Business and Marketing Management, (4) Health, Safety and Environment Management, (5) Human Resources Management, (6) Energy Management, (7) Chemical Engineering, (8) Water Resources Management and (9) Other topics. Scholarly papers in the TOPSIS discipline are further interpreted based on (1) publication year, (2) publication journal, (3) authors' nationality and (4) other methods combined or compared with TOPSIS. We end our review paper with recommendations for future research in TOPSIS decision-making that is both forward-looking and practically oriented. This paper provides useful insights into the TOPSIS method and suggests a framework for future attempts in this area for academic researchers and practitioners.

Review: A state-of the-art survey of TOPSIS applications

Two decades was systematically reviewed on fuzzy MCDM techniques from 1994 to 2014.The database for review was 403 papers from more than 150 high-ranking journals.403 scholarly papers were grouped in four different main fields.Papers were classified based on utilizing, developing and proposing research papers. MCDM is considered as a complex decision-making tool involving both quantitative and qualitative factors. In recent years, several fuzzy FMCDM tools have been suggested to choosing the optimal probably options. The purpose of this paper is to review systematically the applications and methodologies of the fuzzy multi decision-making (FMCDM) techniques. This study reviewed a total of 403 papers published from 1994 to 2014 in more than 150 peer reviewed journals (extracted from online databases such as ScienceDirect, Springer, Emerald, Wiley, ProQuest, and Taylor & Francis). According to experts' opinions, these papers were grouped into four main fields: engineering, management and business, science, and technology. Furthermore, these papers were categorized based on authors, publication date, country of origin, methods, tools, and type of research (FMCDM utilizing research, FMCDM developing research, and FMCDM proposing research). The results of this study indicated that, in 2013, scholars have published papers more than other years. In addition, hybrid fuzzy MCDM in the integrated method and fuzzy AHP in the individual section were ranked as the first and second methods in use. Additionally, Taiwan was ranked as the first country that contributed to this survey, and engineering was ranked as the first field that has applied fuzzy DM tools and techniques.

Fuzzy multiple criteria decision-making techniques and applications - Two decades review from 1994 to 2014

A Short Course in Cloud Physics

The aim of this study is to identify and prioritize the solutions of Knowledge Management (KM) adoption in Supply Chain (SC) to overcome its barriers. It helps organizations to concentrate on high rank solutions and develop strategies to implement them on priority. This paper proposes a framework based on fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) to identify and rank the solutions of KM adoption in SC and overcome its barriers. The AHP is used to determine weights of the barriers as criteria, and fuzzy TOPSIS method is used to obtain final ranking of the solutions of KM adoption in SC. The empirical case study analysis of an Indian hydraulic valve manufacturing organization is conducted to illustrate the use of the proposed framework for ranking the solutions of KM adoption in SC to overcome its barriers. This proposed framework provides a more accurate, effective and systematic decision support tool for stepwise implementation of the solutions of KM adoption in SC to increase its success rate.

A fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS framework for ranking the solutions of Knowledge Management adoption in Supply Chain to overcome its barriers

https://www.sintef.no/globalassets/project/vip08/vip08-hoff.pdf

Review: Industrial aspects and literature survey: Fleet composition and routing

In today's organizations, performance measurement comes more to the foreground with the advancement in the high technology. So as to manage this power, which is an important element of the organizations, it is needed to have a performance measurement system. Increased level of competition in the business environment and higher customer requirements forced industry to establish a new philosophy to measure its performance beyond the existing financial and non-financial based performance indicators. In this paper, a conceptual performance measurement framework that takes into account company-level factors is presented for a real world application problem. In order to use the conceptual framework for measuring performance, a methodology that takes into account both quantitative and qualitative factors and the interrelations between them should be utilized. For this reason, an integrated approach of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) improved by rough sets theory (Rough-AHP) and fuzzy TOPSIS method is proposed to obtain final ranking.

Performance measurement model for Turkish aviation firms using the rough-AHP and TOPSIS methods under fuzzy environment

In this paper, a new modified particle swarm optimization algorithm with negative knowledge is proposed to solve the mixed-model two-sided assembly line balancing problem. The proposed approach includes new procedures such as generation procedure which is based on combined selection mechanism and decoding procedure. These new procedures enhance the solution capability of the algorithm while enabling it to search at different points of the solution space, efficiently. Performance of the proposed approach is tested on a set of test problem. The experimental results show that the proposed approach can be acquired distinguished results than the existing solution approaches.

A modified particle swarm optimization algorithm to mixed-model two-sided assembly line balancing

The aim of this work is to propose a hybrid heuristic approach (called hGA) based on genetic algorithm (GA) and integer-programming formulation (IPF) to solve high dimensional classification problems in linguistic fuzzy rule-based classification systems. In this algorithm, each chromosome represents a rule for specified class, GA is used for producing several rules for each class, and finally IPF is used for selection of rules from a pool of rules, which are obtained by GA. The proposed algorithm is experimentally evaluated by the use of non-parametric statistical tests on seventeen classification benchmark data sets. Results of the comparative study show that hGA is able to discover accurate and concise classification rules.

hGA: Hybrid genetic algorithm in fuzzy rule-based classification systems for high-dimensional problems

In this paper, a novel stochastic two-sided U-type assembly line balancing (STUALB) procedure, an algorithm based on the genetic algorithm and a heuristic priority rule-based procedure to solve STUALB problem are proposed. With this new proposed assembly line design, all advantages of both two-sided assembly lines and U-type assembly lines are combined. Due to the variability of the real-life conditions, stochastic task times are also considered in the study. The proposed approach aims to minimise the number of positions (i.e. the U-type assembly line length) as the primary objective and to minimise the number of stations (i.e. the number of operators) as a secondary objective for a given cycle time. An example problem is solved to illustrate the proposed approach. In order to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, test problems taken from the literature are used. The experimental results show that the proposed approach performs well.

Stochastic two-sided U-type assembly line balancing: a genetic algorithm approach

U-lines are important parts of the Just-In-Time production system in order to improve productivity and quality. In real life applications of assembly lines, the tasks may have varying execution times defined as a probability distribution. In this study, a novel particle swarm optimization algorithm is proposed to solve the U-line balancing problem with stochastic task times. A computational study is conducted to compare the performance of the proposed approach to the existing methods in the literature. The results of the computational study show that the proposed approach performs quite effectively. It also yields good solutions for all test problems within a short computational time.

Emel Kızılkaya Aydoğan

Papers

Performance measurement model for Turkish aviation firms using the rough-AHP and TOPSIS methods under fuzzy environment

A modified particle swarm optimization algorithm to mixed-model two-sided assembly line balancing

hGA: Hybrid genetic algorithm in fuzzy rule-based classification systems for high-dimensional problems

Stochastic two-sided U-type assembly line balancing: a genetic algorithm approach

Balancing stochastic U-lines using particle swarm optimization