Pareto multi‐criteria decision making

The paper concerns design governed by multiple objective criteria, which are conflicting in the sense of competing for common resources to achieve variously different performance objectives (financial, functional, environmental, esthetical, etc.). A multi‐criteria decision making (MCDM) strategy is proposed that employs a tradeoff‐analysis technique to identify compromise designs for which the competing criteria are mutually satisfied in a Pareto‐optimal sense. The MCDM strategy is initially developed for the case of design governed by n =2 objective criteria. It is then extended to design governed by n >2 objective criteria, by introducing the concept of primary and aggregate criteria. It is proved that, from among the theoretically infinite number of feasible designs forming the Pareto front for a design problem governed by n independent objective criteria, there exists a unique Pareto‐compromise design that represents a mutually agreeable tradeoff between all n criteria. This remarkable result is illustrated for a flexural plate design governed by n =2 criteria, a bridge maintenance‐intervention protocol design governed by n =3 criteria, and a media centre envelop design governed by n =11 criteria.