An integrated fuzzy approach to whole life costing based decision making.

Whole life costing (WLC) has had little impact on the decision making process to date. The main contention of this research has been that almost all published WLC methodologies fall short from dealing effectively with various facets of uncertainty associated with WLC modelling. WLC data is fraught of uncertainty, functions of which are: imprecision, randomness and ambiguity. Therefore, it has been suggested that research should be carried out to identify effective methods that can recover the information that is present in this uncertain data and assess the faith that can be placed on this information and consequently good and reliable decisions can be made. In doing so, a theoretical framework for WLC has been outlined. This framework is based on the idea that a complex problem of interest may be deconstructed into simpler tasks. Then, the appropriate tools are assigned a subset of tasks that match their capabilities. The proposed framework utilises closed form solutions, statistics, probability theory and fuzzy set theory (FST) to deal with various situations in WLC modelling. Four novel WLC models have been derived from first principles such that uncertainly of all input variables can be effectively modelled. Then, these models have been implemented into computational algorithms using a robust FST-based methodology. These algorithms can effectively handle the imprecision that accompanies the subjective assessments of input variables. An algorithm has been also developed to combine statistically significant data and subjective assessments in the same model calculation. Another algorithm to include non-financial attributes of competing alternatives has also been developed. The developed algorithms employ a wide variety of sound concepts and are well discussed and validated in the context of carefully worked-out example applications. To achieve effectiveness and transparency of the decision-making process, the developed algorithms have been logically combined to build a well-defined integrated approach. It is anticipated that by making the analysis process more objective, straightforward, and less expensive, WLC can receive extensive practical application. This research produced a seminal work that makes an important contribution towards the realisation of this objective.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Robert Gordon University

Year dc:date.issued

2001

Author dc:creator

• Kishk, Mohammed El-Said

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• A. Al-Hajj, R.W. Pollock and G.M. Maxwell

• Whole life costing (WLC)
• Fuzzy set theory (FST)
• Closed form solutions
• Decision making
• Algorithm development

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

oai:rgu-repository.worktribe.com:2807433
https://doi.org/10.48526/rgu-wt-2807433

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:rgu-repository.worktribe.com:2807433