Using the AHP to determine the correlation of product issues to profit

Discusses a new application of the AHP to a problem where the alternatives are not independent. It is used as an integral part of a method to evaluate the likelihood of successful outcomes from current or proposed product development processes. The AHP is used to determine correlation factors to estimate the impact on profit of the various product issues that must be addressed by a company during the product development process. Owing to interactions between the “alternatives”, finds, as expected, that the AHP cannot be used directly to determine these correlation factors. A procedure to overcome this has been developed, whereby the correlation factors are determined first by assuming independence between alternatives, and then modifying the factors to take account of any interactions. Test results are promising, and further refinements to improve the method are suggested.