Past, Present and the Future

The preceding chapters set out the benefits associated with the application of MCDM in engineering design and examine how the use of different methods leads to results of a correspondingly distinctive nature. The data requirements for the various approaches are also discussed along with the underlying assumptions that are built in. As in all decision making methodologies there are two principal considerations in doing this. These are (i) how can one make rational decisions in a consistent manner when faced with multiple, conflicting criteria? (ii) what do real decision-makers do when confronted with decisions involving multiple, conflicting criteria? The first of the two considerations addresses the normative issues of decision making. The aim is to establish more or less standard approaches to broad classes of problems so that the decisions are consistently arrived at. This has the added virtue of allowing computer based decision support tools to be prepared with some degree of confidence in that they will be used in a generally predictable manner. The second of the considerations above deals with the descriptive aspects of decision-making. In other words it is largely about the capturing of the rules applied by real DMs when confronted with real problems.