Research Article

Intelligent decision system for self-assessment

  1. Dong-Ling Xu*,
  2. Jian-Bo Yang

Article first published online: 6 APR 2004

DOI: 10.1002/mcda.343

Issue

Journal of Multi‐Criteria Decision Analysis

Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis

Special Issue: 16th International Conference on Multiple Criteria Decision Making

Volume 12, Issue 1, pages 43–60, January/February 2003

Additional Information

How to Cite

Xu, D.-L. and Yang, J.-B. (2003), Intelligent decision system for self-assessment. J. Multi-Crit. Decis. Anal., 12: 43–60. doi: 10.1002/mcda.343

Author Information

  1. Manchester School of Management, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, PO Box 88, Manchester M60 1QD, UK

*Manchester School of Management, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, PO Box 88, Manchester M60 1QD, UK

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 6 APR 2004
  2. Article first published online: 6 APR 2004
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 23 DEC 2003
  4. Manuscript Received: 30 APR 2002

Funded by

  • EPSRC. Grant Number: R/N65615/01
  • EC. Grant Number: PS-2000-00030

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Keywords:

  • decision support system;
  • MCDA;
  • quality award;
  • self-assessment;
  • business excellence;
  • the evidential reasoning approach

Abstract

Many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the UK use the beta (Business Excellence Through Action) approach to the EFQM Excellence Model to conduct business excellence self-assessment, which is in essence a multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) problem. This paper introduces a decision support software package called Intelligent Decision System (IDS) to implement the beta approach. It is demonstrated in the paper that the IDS-beta package can provide not only average scores but also the following numerical results and graphical displays on:

  • Distributed assessment results to demonstrate the diversity of company performances

  • The performance range to cater for incomplete assessment information

  • Comparisons

    • between current performances and past performances,

    • among different companies

    • among different action plans.

  • Strengths and weaknesses

The IDS-beta package also provides a structured knowledge base to help assessors to make judgements more objectively. The knowledge base contains guidelines provided by the developers of the beta approach, best practices gathered from research on award winning organizations, evidence collected from companies being assessed and comments provided by assessors to record the reasons why a specific criterion is assessed to a certain grade for a company. Four small UK companies, the industry partners of the research project, have carried out the preliminary self-assessment using the package. The results and experience of the application are discussed at the end of the paper. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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