The Logic of Priorities: Applications of Business, Energy, Health and TransportationThis book presents applications of the Analytic Hierarchy Process developed by Thomas L. Saaty to deal with unstructured decision problems, together with case histories developed by him and in collaboration with others in areas of current societal concern. Its purpose is to provide the reader with examples of how to deal with unstructured problems, particularly ones involving socio economic and political issues with qualitative and intangible factors. These examples show how to use judgment and experience to analyze a com plex decision problem by combining its qualitative and quantitative aspects in a single framework and generating a set of priorities for alternative courses of action. The process has inherent flexibilities in structuring a problem and in taking diverse judgments from people, whether singly, in a group working together, or by questionnaire. Decisionmakers will profit from this approach. It makes accessible to them a framework for understanding the complexity of the system they are in as it impinges on the surrounding environment. To deal with complexity, we must first understand it. Systems thinking is necessary if all the important factors are to be considered. Complex systems problems can challenge and tax our logical capability to fully understand their causes and the consequences of any action we may take to solve them. Neverthe less, in time their effects on us tend to become better known than their causes. |
Contents
The Basic Approach | 14 |
The Sudan Transport Study | 45 |
Technological Choice in Less Developed Countries | 66 |
Copyright | |
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activities agricultural alternative analysis Analytic Hierarchy Process apartheid application Arab-Israeli conflict areas assessment backward process Bantustan behavior benefits business segments chapter chess CLUSTERING SCHEME components composite scenario conflict consistency constraints contribution corporate costs countries criteria demand desired future economic eigenvalue eigenvector electric elements energy environmental estimate evaluation example factors Figure forward process given grandmasters growth hospital identified impact importance increase industries influence input-output interdependence investment judgments Khartoum Korchnoi Kuwait LDCs loss function major marketing mix matrix Mktg new-product number of games objectives obtain oil prices OPEC members outcome overall pairwise comparisons payoff matrix payoffs percent petty apartheid planning process players policies political Port Sudan portfolio prediction priorities problem production projects regions relative requirements resource allocation respect risk Saaty sector selection social South Africa Soviet Union strategies subfactors Sudan tion transportation United weights XYZRI's