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This study aims to focus on sustainable supplier selection in a construction company considering a new multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method based on dominance-based rough set analysis. The inclusion of sustainability concept in industrial supply chains has started gaining momentum due to increased environmental protection awareness and social obligations. The selection of sustainable suppliers marks the first step toward accomplishing this objective. The problem of selecting the right suppliers fulfilling the sustainable requirements is a major MCDM problem since various conflicting factors are underplay in the selection process. The decision-makers are often confronted with inconsistent situations forcing them to make imprecise and vague decisions.

This paper presents a new method based on dominance-based rough sets for the selection of right suppliers based on sustainable performance criteria relying on the triple bottom line approach. The method applied has its distinct advantages by providing more transparency in dealing with the preference information provided by the decision-makers and is thus found to be more intuitive and appealing as a performance measurement tool.

The technique is easy to apply using “jrank” software package and devises results in the form of decision rules and ranking that further assist the decision-makers in making an informed decision that increases credibility in the decision-making process.

The novelty of this study of its kind is that uses the dominance-based rough set approach for a sustainable supplier selection process.

Maintenance strategy selection (MSS) is considered as a complex multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive review on the use and application of MCDM approach and its associated case studies in the field of MSS.

The paper systematically classifies the published literature of both researchers and practitioners and then analyzes and reviews it methodically.

This paper outlines the important issues relevant to the subject, including the techniques used for data collection, the quantitative and qualitative criteria taken into account in decision making, the maintenance strategies considered for evaluation, the methods applied to find the solution, and the type of industries being studied. In each category, the gaps are identified along with recommendations for the future research work.

Literature on classification of the MCDM models used to select the most appropriate maintenance strategy is very limited. The proposed classification scheme not only will be useful to researchers, but also assists maintenance professionals to find the models that fit their specific needs.

The paper provides many references in the field, including the articles published in academic journals, conference papers, master and doctoral dissertations, text books, and industrial reports, and suggests a classification scheme according to various attributes.

Advanced manufacturing machines (AMMs) are searched as a momentous asset across the manufacturing societies for quenching and addressing the production units under economical circumstances, i.e. production of high-quality of goods under feasible cost. AMMs are significant in holding the managers against their rivals and competitors with high profit margins. The authors developed the decision support mechanism/portfolio (DSM-P) consist of knowledge-based cluster approach with a dynamic model. The purpose of research work is to measure overall economic worth of AMMs under objective and grey-imperfect (mixed) data by exploring the proposed DSM-P.

The authors developed the DSM-P that consist of knowledge-based cluster, three multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques-1-2-3 with complementary grey relational analysis-4(GRA), approach with a dynamic model (complied by technical plus cost and agility measures of AMMs). The proposed DSM-P enables the manager to map the overall economic worth of candidate AMMs under objective and grey-mixed data.

The presented DSM-P assist the managers for handling the selection problem of AMMs, i.e. CNCs, robots, automatic-guided vehicle, etc under mixed (objective cum grey) data. To enable the readers for intensely understand the work, the utility of proposed approach is displayed by illustrating a polar robot evaluation and selection problem. It is ascertained that the robot candidate-11 alternative is fulfilling the entire technical cum cost and agility measures.

The DSM-P provides more precise and reliable outcomes due to a usage of the dominance theory. Under the dominance theory, the ranks are obtained by MCDM techniques-1-2-3 are compared with ranks gathered by the GRA-4 under objective cum grey data, formed the novelties in presented research work. From a future perspective, the grey-based models in DSM-P can be built/extended/constructed more extensive and can be simulated by the same approach.

Decision makers in the service industry must effectively cope with queuing problems, service capacity optimization, service efficiency and service quality problems. This study proposes a computer simulation‐enabled MCDM framework that integrates computer simulation analysis, Taguchi method, expert opinion and multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) to assist decision makers in coping with decision problems. In this framework, Taguchi method is adopted to reduce the time required for the simulation experiment. Computer simulation analysis is adopted to obtain useful information for rapid decision‐making without interrupting actual production. MCDM is used to select the optimal alternative. The illustrative result is extremely promising.

The purpose of this paper is to determine as to develop a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) algorithm with self-check capability that can solve any manufacturing company's printed circuit boards (PCB) design computer aided design (CAD) tool selection problem and to implement it.

An algorithm that consists of two sub-algorithms that use same inputs and alternative pool is developed, thus self-check capability is introduced. The first sub-algorithm designed as an integration of fuzzy AHP and TOPSIS, where the second sub-algorithm composes of fuzzy analytic network process and TOPSIS. Fuzzy set theory and linguistic variables were utilized to handle uncertainty and usage of verbal expressions, respectively. MATLAB programming language was used for the implementation. The used MCDM methods’ and fuzzy set theory's explanations are given along with the literature review prior to real life application of the developed algorithm.

A MCDM algorithm with self-check capability is introduced. Moreover, a practical decision aid tool is generated for the usage of the manufacturing companies that are related with PCB design.

A practical computerized MCDM aid tool is generated. Using the tool let the manufacturers, i.e. high-tech device manufacturers, evaluate available PCB CAD design tools with respect to tangible and intangible criteria, and obtain a reliable result.

Self-check capability is incorporated into the decision process. Along with this capability, although the decision-making process takes place in a fuzzy environment, result of the algorithm becomes more reliable than the ones deprived of this characteristic. Furthermore, a practical computerized MCDM aid tool is generated.

Expert evaluation is the backbone of the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques. The experts make pairwise comparisons between criteria or alternatives in this evaluation. The mainstream research focus on the ambiguity in this process and use fuzzy logic. On the other hand, cognitive biases are the other but scarcely studied challenges to make accurate decisions. The purpose of this paper is to propose pilot filters – as a debiasing strategy – embedded in the MCDM techniques to reduce the effects of framing effect, loss aversion and status quo-type cognitive biases. The applicability of the proposed methodology is shown with analytic hierarchy process-based Technique for Order-Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution method through a sustainable supplier selection problem.

The first filter's aim is to reduce framing bias with restructuring the questions. To manipulate the weights of criteria according to the degree of expected status quo and loss aversion biases is the second filter's aim. The second filter is implemented to a sustainable supplier selection problem.

The comparison of the results of biased and debiased ranking indicates that the best and worst suppliers did not change, but the ranking of suppliers changed. As a result, it is shown that, to obtain more accurate results, employing debiasing strategies is beneficial.

To the best of the author's knowledge, this approach is a novel way to cope with the cognitive biases. Applying this methodology easily to other MCDM techniques will help the decision makers to take more accurate decisions.

This paper is focused on developing an integrated algorithmic approach named as data envelopment analysis and multicriteria decision-making (DEA-MCDM) for ranking decision-making units (DMUs) based on cross-efficiency technique and subjective preference(s) of the decision maker.

Self-evaluation in data envelopment analysis (DEA) lacks in discrimination power among DMUs. To fix this, a cross-efficiency technique has been introduced that ranks DMUs based on peer-evaluation. Different cross-efficiency formulations such as aggressive and benevolent and neutral are available in the literature. The existing ranking approaches fail to incorporate subjective preference of “one” or “some” or “all” or “most” of the cross-efficiency evaluation formulations. Therefore, the integrated framework in this paper, based on DEA and multicriteria decision-making (MCDM), aims to present a ranking approach to incorporate different cross-efficiency formulations as well as subjective preference(s) of decision maker.

The proposed approach has an advantage that each of the aggressive, benevolent and neutral cross-efficiency formulations contribute to select the best alternative among the DMUs in a MCDM problem. Ordered weighted averaging (OWA) aggregation is applied to aggregate final cross-efficiencies and to achieve complete ranking of the DMUs. This new approach is further illustrated and compared with existing MCDM approaches like simple additive weighting (SAW) and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to prove its validity in real situations.

The choice of cross-efficiency formulation(s) as per subjective preference of the decision maker and different orness levels lead to different aggregated scores and thus ranking of the DMUs accordingly. The proposed ranking approach is highly useful in real applications like R and D projects, flexible manufacturing systems, electricity distribution sector, banking industry, labor assignment and the economic environmental performances for ranking and benchmarking.

To prove the practical applicability and robustness of the proposed integrated DEA-MCDM approach, it is applied to top twelve Indian banks in terms of three inputs and two outputs for the period 2018–2019. The findings of the study (1) ensure the impact of non-performing assets (NPAs) on the ranking of the selected banks and (2) are enormously valuable for the bank experts and policy makers to consider the impact of peer-evaluation and subjective preference(s) in formulating appropriate policies to improve performance and ranks of underperformed banks in competitive scenario.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that has integrated both DEA and MCDM via OWA aggregation to present a ranking approach that can incorporate different cross-efficiency formulations and subjective preference(s) of the decision maker for ranking DMUs.

The concept of sustainable product design (SPD) is gaining significant attention in recent research. However, due to inherent uncertainties associated with new product development and incorporation of multiple qualitative and quantitative criteria; SPD is a complex and challenging task. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a novel approach by integrating quality function deployment (QFD), multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) technique and Six Sigma evaluation for facilitating SPD in the context of Industry 4.0.

The customer requirements are evaluated through the neutrosophic-decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory-analytic network process (DEMATEL-ANP)-based approach followed by utilizing QFD matrix to estimate the weights of the engineering characteristics (EC). The Six Sigma method is then employed to evaluate the alternatives’ design based on the ECs’ values.

The effectiveness of the suggested approach is illustrated through an example. The result indicates that utilization of the neutrosophic MCDM technique with integration of Six Sigma methodology provides a simple, effective and computationally inexpensive method for SPD.

The proposed approach is helpful in upstream evaluation of the product design with limited experimental/numerical data, maintaining a strong competitive position in the market and enhancing customer satisfaction.

This work provides a novel approach to objectively quantify performance of SPD under the paradigm of Industry 4.0 using the integration of QFD-based hybrid MCDM with Six Sigma method.

This study is centered on the identification of the most appropriate Technology Adoption (TA) model for investigating the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies within pharmaceutical and related enterprises. The aim is to facilitate a smooth transition to advanced technologies while concurrently achieving environmental sustainability.

Selection of a suitable TA theory is carried out using a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach incorporating PIvot Pairwise RElative Criteria Importance Assessment (PIPRECIA) and Fuzzy Measurement of alternatives and ranking according to Compromise solution (F-MARCOS) methods. A group of three experts is formulated for the ranking of criteria and alternatives based on those criteria.

The results indicate that out of all six TA models considered unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model gets the highest utility function value, followed by the technical adoption model (TAM). Further, sensitivity analysis is conducted to confirm the validity of the MCDM model employed.

Challenging times like COVID-19 pointed out the importance of technology in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. TA studies in this area can help in the identification of critical factors that can assist pharmaceutical firms in their efforts to embrace emerging technologies, enhance their outputs and increase their efficiency.

The novelty of this research lies in the fact that the utilization of a TA theory prior to its implementation has not been witnessed in existing scholarly literature. The utilization of a TA theory, specifically within the pharmaceutical industry, can assist enterprises in directing their attention toward pertinent factors when contemplating the implementation of emerging technologies and achieving sustainable development.

Although real estate investment decisions are among the most important managerial decisions, such decisions are usually made in an ad hoc fashion in Southeast Asia. The purpose of this study is to present a two-tier multi-criteria decision-making model for real estate investment decisions across three rapidly growing but significantly understudied Southeast Asian countries: Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Using three data sources (secondary data, two surveys and nearly 100 experts and senior executives), the authors applied a combination of the Analytic Hierarchy Process and the Simple Additive Weighting (or weighted sum) methods as two special cases of multi-criteria decision-making to assess nine real estate investment projects across Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam.

The results of this study indicated that Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar were the first, second and third most preferred countries for real estate investments, respectively. Moreover, the results clearly show a trade-off between perceived country risk and financial returns, indicating that a higher perceived country risk can be compensated for with higher financial returns.

Real estate investment decisions are usually made in an ad hoc manner in Southeast Asia. This study helps investors make more informed decisions when investing in real estate projects across three rapidly growing but significantly understudied Southeast Asian countries: Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam.