The analytic hierarchy process: can wash criteria be ignored?

Authors:
J. S. Finan;W. J. Hurley
Affiliations:
Department of Political and Economic Science, Royal Military College of Canada, CP 17000, Succursale Forces, Kingston, Ont., Canada;Department of Business Administration, Royal Military College of Canada, CP 17000, Succursale Forces, Kingston, Ont., Canada
Venue:
Computers and Operations Research
Year:
2002

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Abstract

We define a wash criterion as one where the decision-maker is indifferent among the alternatives when they are compared on that criterion. In view of the Belton-Gear example and other such anomalies associated with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), we ask whether eliminating a wash criterion will affect the overall ranking of objects. In the case where there is only one level of criteria, the rank-order of objects is unaffected by leaving out a wash criterion. However, in the case where the wash criterion is a subcriterion, the rank order may be affected by leaving it out.