Feedback-Based Algorithm for Negotiating Human Preferences and Making Risk Assessment Decisions

Abstract

Work equipment risk assessment is essential for guaranteeing health and safety of workers in industrial contexts.Many and varied hazards are involved in the use of equipment,which have to be periodically subject to thorough controls required by law. This research proposes a novel hybrid decision-making framework aimed at integrating flexible negotiation on human preferences. This goal will be achieved by establishing effective feedback exchanges with expert(s) familiarwith the field of risk and maintenance of work equipment. We extend a previous research that proposed a user-friendly negotiation procedure to increase consistency of judgments provided by experts about relevant risk factors. The proposed algorithm has been built within the framework of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a widely popular Multi- Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) method. After negotiation of the evaluations of preference with experts to weight the main risk factors of interest, the obtained priorities will be used as a part of the body of input data required for a further MCDM application. This application will use the ELimination Et Choix Traduisant la REalité (ELECTRE) I method as a structured way for planning and implementing maintenance interventions. A real world application will lead towards the selection of the work equipment with associated higher level of risk under diverse risk factors, differently weighted by means of the negotiation process. Apart from the industrial field of reference, our theoretical framework can be applied to solve a wide range of practical decision-making problem.