A satisficing method for fuzzy goal programming problems with different importance and priorities

For treating multiple objectives decision making problems with fuzzy goals and different importance, various kinds of fuzzy goal programming (FGP) models have been developed in the past three decades. Among them, two most widely used methods are: (1) weighted FGP, where the importance of the objectives is represented by weights (2) preemptive priority (also known as “Lexicographic”) FGP, where the priority levels of the goals are set in advance, and the trade-offs among goals placed at different priority levels are implemented strictly. This article presents a satisficing method based on FGP model, which holds that a more important objective has to be achieved as much as possible. The relaxed preemptive priority requirement in the proposed model provides a more efficient, flexible and practicable decision support compared to the weighted and the lexicographic models. In addition, the trade-off between optimization and importance requirement can be realized by the regulation parameter in the presented method. The performance of this method is evaluated by comparing its result with those of the six existing models in the literature. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2013