Introduction

Analytical Hierarchy Process

56:134 Process Engineering

How it Works!
It incorporates all relevant decision criteria.
Their pairpair-wise comparison allows the
decision maker to determine the tradetrade-offs
among objectives

The analytical hierarchy process

(AHP) is a comprehensive, logical
and structured framework
Allows to improve understanding of
complex decisions by decomposing
the problem

Applications
This procedure recognizes and
incorporates the knowledge and expertise
of the participants
Makes use of their subjective judgments,
which is a particularly important feature for
decisions to be made on a poor
information base

The AHP is based on three

principles:
Decomposition of the decision problem
Comparative judgment of the elements

Step 1
Structure the
decision problem in
a hierarchy

Synthesis of the priorities

Step 2

Step 3

Comparison of the
alternatives based
on the criteria

Synthesize the comparisons to get the

priorities of the alternatives with respect
to each criterion and the weights of each
criterion with respect to the goal
Local priorities are then multiplied by the
weights of the respective criterion
The results are summed up to produce the
overall priority of each alternative
2, 4, 6

An illustrative example
(from www.isnar.cgiar.org)
www.isnar.cgiar.org)
A simplified example may clarify the AHP procedure. Assume that
we have three projects to prioritize:
Genetic markers to assist plant breeding and selection of
insectinsect-resistant varieties;
Micropropagation (tissue culture) for pathogen elimination and
mass propagation;
PostPost-harvest management (low(low-cost storage technologies) for
quality maintenance.

Hierarchical Structure

Criteria
Efficiency
Sustainability
Strategic effects (indirect research
effects)
Feasibility

Pairwise comparison of the

criteria with respect to the goal

Pairwise comparison of projects with

respect to the efficiency criterion

Pairwise comparison
Additional tables for
Sustainability
Strategic effects, and
Feasibility

Priorities, weights, and the final

ranking of the projects