Grey Absolute Decision Analysis (GADA) Method for Multiple Criteria Group Decision-Making Under Uncertainty

The study proposes a novel, convenient and dimensionless model of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM), hereby referred to as Grey Absolute Decision Analysis (GADA) method. The foundation of the GADA method rests upon the Absolute Grey Relational Analysis (Absolute GRA) model and the system that the method follows to produce GADA Indexes and GADA Weights. The GADA Weights represent the relative weights of decision alternatives under given criteria. The method can handle both positive (higher the better) and negative (lower the better) criteria simultaneously in its algorithm. The method can deal with problems involving uncertainty and incomplete data. Two practical cases have been presented in the study to demonstrate the feasibility of the method. Furthermore, the GADA Weights obtained for the cases show that these values are comparable to the relative weights obtained through the traditional methods like AHP and SAW thus signifying the feasibility of the method. However, the conventional methods do not consider the mutual association between the judgments of the members of decision-making group (experts' opinions), a weakness that the proposed method overwhelms. Therefore, the overall ranking obtained from the proposed method is acceptable, especially under the uncertain environment where the nature of mutual association between the judgments is not precise. The key benefit of the method lies in its adaptability to different scales of measurement. Also, it can provide relative weights and rankings of experts, criterion and alternatives. These benefits make the GADA method significant among the class of MCDM methods.