TIEJ6004 COM4: Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) (JSS33) (2 cr)

Brief Description:
Multi-Criteria Decision Making is an essential part of the management process and pervades the activities of every business manager. In view of the fast-changing environment and increasing complexity of the real world, there is a much greater need for acquiring the requisite skills for decision making by scientific and systemic methods. The purpose of this course, is an introduction with the concepts, tools and techniques of decision making under multiple conflicting criteria. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is a structured methodology used to assess and compare options based on multiple criteria. The steps involved in MCDA methods and models are as follows:

1. Define the decision problem
2. Choose relevant criteria for evaluation
3. Assess performance for each alternative vis-à-vis each criterion (based on assigned weights to the criteria)
4. Synthesize performance scores and criteria weights to rank alternatives
5. Present results to the decision makers for implementation after addressing uncertainty and sensitivity issues.

MCDA serves the purpose of providing a systematic framework to evaluate alternatives considering a variety of criteria relevant to the decision context. By incorporating multiple criteria, MCDA enables decision-makers to explore trade-offs and understand the potential impacts of different options, leading to more robust and well-informed decisions.

Teaching Learning Method:
The course will be based on lectures, case presentations and project work. The participants are advised to go through the reading material well in advance before the class. The course is designed to be interactive and the emphasis will be on learning by doing. The participants are expected to use Excel and/or relevant computer software for solving the problems throughout the course. Mode of delivery will be in person.

Important guidelines to the participants:
Students should bring their own laptop/tablet to the classes. There will be two quizzes with equal weights. For Project work there will be several groups with not more than 5 participants in each group. An effort will be made to find out the degree of involvement of each participant in the project work before assigning marks. Each group will select a decision-making problem from various areas (supplier/vendor selection, transportation, selection of a candidate, performance assessment, medical etc.). Determine alternative; Determine evaluation criteria; Apply one or more MCDA methods using Excel sheet in detail; To validate results apply sensitivity analysis; Comment results in detail and prepare a Report. There will be a final presentation of the findings (online). 

At the end of the course a participant is expected to accomplish the following course learning outcomes:

• Understanding theoretical constructs of multi-criteria decision making (MCDA)
• Applying MCDA methods to formulate the real-life business problems
• Applying MCDA methods through MS Excel

Basic knowledge of concepts of decision analysis and operations research