Papers

Scaling the membership function

Author(s)
Thomas Saaty
Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business
University of Pittsburgh

Publication date: Jan, 1986

Journal: European Journal of Operational Research
- Pages: 320-329

Abstract: To scale the membership function, a method is needed that can assess the importance of elements with respect to a property or criterion that is common among them. It is conceivable that membership should be determined in terms of several criteria tangible and intangible. The approach needed is a multicriterion process whose measurements admit arithmetic operations that preserve the scaling property. Ratio scales is what one obtains through ratio comparisons of elements with respect to criteria. Below we give a set of axioms underlying the Analytic Hierarchy Process for constructing and composing ratio scales, an effective way for constructing the membership function.

Keywords: Scale, Membership function, Tangibles, Intangibles, Multi-criteria decision, AHP, Analytic Hierarchy Process

URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/0377-2217(86)90263-8