Multiple-criteria Group Decision Support Systems with Application to a Surface Mine Equipment Selection Problem

Many aspects of decision making and many decision problems in the mining engineering domain are not programmable. In dealing with these unstructured problems, engineering decisions are based on a combination of “objective” knowledge, “subjective” information, and engineering judgment. A considerable amount of research is now being done on multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques. Recent development in artificial intelligence, particularly with regards to expert systems, has further opened up the possibility of modeling the decision maker rather than the decision situation. This paper discusses the theoretical and methodological foundations for performing multiple levels of integration of multiple-criteria group decision support systems with application to surface mine equipment selection.