Prequalification of Egyptian construction contractors using fuzzy-AHP models

Purpose - Contractor prequalification is a typical multiple criteria decision-making problem that includes both quantitative and qualitative criteria. The conditions surrounding the prequalification decision are often imprecise, subjective and uncertain; assessments are consequently made using linguistic approximations. Fuzzy set theory is specifically designed to handle qualitative and linguistic data based on approximations and provides a method of representing in numerical form the linguistic approximations used to describe the decision-maker judgments. However, fuzzy set theory has a weakness in identification of the relative weights of the decision criteria. On the other hand, one of the most accurate and easy methods for identifying the relative weights is the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). This paper seeks to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach - The main objective of this paper is to develop a new integrated decision model composed of fuzzy set theory and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodologies approach that takes full advantages of the fuzzy set theory and the AHP. Two fuzzy approaches are considered, namely Chang's extent analysis and Jaskowski aggregated group decision analysis. Findings - Both approaches are applied and validated on actual contractors in the Egyptian construction market. A software tool is developed to automate the calculations and a case study is provided. Originality/value - This research produced a new integrated decision model composed of fuzzy-AHP methodology approach that takes full advantages of the fuzzy set theory and AHP for tackling the uncertainty and imprecision of contractor prequalification during the prequalification stage, where the decision-makers comparison judgments are represented as fuzzy triangular numbers. The default criteria used in this model had been collected through the literature review and experts' opinion for building projects.