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EVALUATION BY AN AREA-BASED METHOD OF RANKING INTERVAL TYPE-2 FUZZY SETS (EAMRIT-2F) FOR MULTI-CRITERIA GROUP DECISION-MAKING
Mehdi Keshavarz Ghorabaee, Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas, Maghsoud Amiri, Jurgita Antucheviciene

ABSTRACT. A type-2 fuzzy set, which is characterised by a fuzzy membership function, can provide us with more degrees of freedom to represent the uncertainty and vagueness of the real-world problems. Interval type-2 fuzzy sets are the most widely used type-2 fuzzy sets and have significant applications in modelling of the multi-criteria decision-making problems. In this paper, we present a new method of Evaluation by an Area-based Method of Ranking Interval Type-2 Fuzzy sets (EAMRIT-2F) for multi-criteria group decision-making. First, we propose a new method for ranking interval type-2 fuzzy sets based on the area under the upper and lower membership functions and the possibility degree of fuzzy sets. The ranking values of the proposed method are also compared with some existing methods. Then, the EAMRIT-2F method is presented based on the proposed ranking method of interval type-2 fuzzy sets for handling the fuzzy multi-criteria group decision-making problems. Applying the proposed method to an example concerning the selection of a facility location, we illustrate the process of the proposed method in the fuzzy multi-criteria group decision-making. The result of the EAMRIT-2F method is compared with five other methods. The comparison shows the consistency between the proposed method and other methods .

KEYWORDS:  interval type-2 fuzzy sets, multi-criteria group decision-making, MCDM, ranking value, possibility degree, EAMRIT-2F.

JEL classification:  C02, C44, C61, C63, L6.