An application of Yager's bag theory in multicriteria based decision making problems

We consider a problem of selecting most suitable action out of n alternatives on the basis of k factors or criteria where m judges supply information on all of these k factors/ criteria. Our observation is that in many situations the criteria values are not crisp, but rather fuzzy bags. The method is based on the concept of a measure of similarity between two fuzzy bags, which is defined in this paper. An algorithm for the method is presented, and a hypothetical application-oriented example is demonstrated. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.