Interactive Multiple Goal Programming

1. 1. Motivation This book is based on the view-tx)int that both public and private decision making, in practice, can often be ilrproved upon by means of fonnal (nonnative) decision nodels and methods. To sane extent, the validity of this statement can be measured by the irrpressive number of su=esses of disciplines as operations research and management science. Hcwever, as witnessed by the many discussions in the professional journals in these fields, many rrodels and methods do not completely meet the requirements of decision making in prac tice. Of all possible origins of these clear shortcomings, we main-· ly focus on only one: the fact that nost of these nodels and methods are unsuitable for decision situations in which multiple and possi bly conflicting objectives playa role, because they are concentra ted on the (optimal) fulfilment of only one objective. The need to account for multiple goals was observed relatively early. Hoffman [1955], while describing 'what seem to be the prin cipal areas (in linear prograrrrning) where new ideas and new methods are needed' gives an exanple with conflicting goals. In this pro blem, the assignrrent of relative weights is a great problem for the planning staff and is 'probably not the province of the mathemati cian engaged in solving this problem'. These remarks were true pre cursors of later develor:nents. Nevertheless, the need for methods dealing with multiple goals was not widely recognized until much later.

Contenu

1. Introduction.- 1.1. Motivation.- 1.2. Scope of the Study.- 1.3. Outline of the Contents.- References.- 2. Multiple Goals in Capital Budgeting and Financial Planning.- 2.1. Introduction.- 2.2. Constraints in Capital Budgeting and Financial Planning.- 2.3. The Goal of Market Value Maximization.- 2.4. Assumptions with Respect to the Decision Maker and the Organization.- 2.5. The Firm's Market Value as One of the Elements in a Dynamic Goal Complex.- References.- 3. A Survey of Multiple Criteria Decision Methods.- 3.1. Terminology and Basic Concepts.- 3.2. Decision Problems and Methods.- 3.3. Some Characteristics of Decision Problems.- 3.4. A General Overview of Available Methods.- 3.5. An Overview of Multiple Objective Programming Methods.- 3.6. Conclusion.- References.- 4. Goal Programming.- 4.1. General Formulation.- 4.2. The Objective Function.- 4.3. Solution Procedures.- 4.4. An Adapted Simplex Procedure.- 4.5. Concluding Remarks.- References.- 5. Interactive Multiple Objective Programming Methods.- 5.1. Features of an Interactive Approach.- 5.2. Elements of Interactive Methods.- 5.3. The Need of an Interactive Variant of Goal Programming.- 5.4. Interactive Goal Programming Methods.- 5.5. Conclusion.- References.- 6. Interactive Multiple Goal Programming.- 6.1. Definitions and Assumptions.- 6.2. Description of the Procedure.- 6.3. IMGP in Linear Terms.- 6.4. Existence, Feasibility, Uniqueness and Convergency.- 6.5. Concluding Remarks.- Appendix 6.a. Suitable Starting Solutions.- References.- 7. IMGP in Practice: Examples and Experiences.- 7.1. Two Simple Examples.- 7.2. Experiments with an Imaginary Decision Maker.- 7.3. Some Empirical Results.- 7.4. IMGP Applied to Discrete Decision Problems.- 7.5. Conclusions.- Appendix 7.a. Computer Program Used for theExperiments with an Imaginary Decision Maker.- Appendix 7.b. An Operational Computer Program for IMGP.- References.- 8. Capital Budgeting and Financial Planning with Multiple Goals.- 8.1. A Brief Survey of the Literature.- 8.2. Large Numbers of Goal Variables.- 8.3. Goal Variables Requiring Special Treatment.- 8.4. Indivisibility of Projects.- 8.5. Conclusion.- References.- 9. Using IMGP for a Financial Planning Model: An Illustration.- 9.1. Introductory Remarks.- 9.2. Description of the Model.- 9.3. Selection of a Financial Plan (Continuous Case).- 9.4. Selection of a Financial Plan (Discrete Case).- 9.5. Conclusion.- References.- 10. Evaluation.- 10.1. Implementation of IMGP.- 10.2. Main Advantages of IMGP.- 10.3. Some Disadvantages and Areas for Further Research.- 10.4. Concluding Remarks.- References.- Author Index.