The Homogeneous MADM Methods: Is Trade-Off between Attributes Important?

Compensatory multiattribute decision-making (MADM) methods are founded on the trade-offs between attributes, allowing an alternative to compensate for its weakness in an attribute with its strength in another attribute. We call them heterogeneous MADM methods because they generally consider the unlimited trade-off between attributes. In other words, they even allow that very poor performance of an attribute to be compensated by the strong performance of another attribute. However, this may not be acceptable to decision makers (DMs). They may accept the limited trade-offs between attributes, making them more homogeneous. In these situations, MADM methods should be modified to consider the limited trade-offs between attributes. This modification comes with some conceptual and technical difficulties. This study presents some examples to show the concept of limited trade-offs clearly and presents a modified version of the simple additive weighting (SAW) method, H-SAW, considering the limited trade-offs between attributes. We also integrate H-SAW and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) methods to supplier selection and illustrate the real application of H-SAW method.