Developing a New Approach for Assessing and Improving Business Excellence: Integrating Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchical Process and Constraint Programming Model

This study introduces a novel two-stage model for assessing and enhancing business excellence based on the EFQM framework. The Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) is used in the first stage to calculate the weight vectors of criteria and sub-criteria, incorporating uncertainty through triangular...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Symmetry (Basel) Vol. 17; no. 4; p. 607
Main Authors: Petrović, Tijana, Tadić, Danijela, Marinković, Dragan, Đurić, Goran, Komatina, Nikola
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Basel MDPI AG 16.04.2025
Subjects:
Analytic hierarchy process
Boolean
Computer organization
Constraints
Criteria
Decision making
Fuzzy sets
Knapsack problem
Literature reviews
Mathematical programming
Objectivity
Optimization
Quality management
Resource allocation
Self evaluation
Software
Symmetry
Systems stability
Serbia
ISSN:2073-8994, 2073-8994
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This study introduces a novel two-stage model for assessing and enhancing business excellence based on the EFQM framework. The Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) is used in the first stage to calculate the weight vectors of criteria and sub-criteria, incorporating uncertainty through triangular fuzzy numbers (TFNs). In the second stage, the OR-Tools CP-SAT solver is used to solve the selection and improvement of sub-criteria as a multidimensional knapsack problem with mixed min/max constraints. In this way, a new and enhanced model for evaluating business excellence is presented—one that takes into account the company’s current capabilities and circumstances while also providing management with a starting point for enhancing business performance. The model is validated using data from a manufacturing company in central Serbia. The findings suggest that improvement efforts should not be symmetrically distributed across all EFQM criteria and sub-criteria. Instead, an asymmetric approach provides efficient resource allocation while maximizing business excellence improvements. This study emphasizes the balance or symmetry between subjective decision-makers’ assessments and mathematically based optimization, demonstrating the practical applicability of the proposed method in strategic decision-making under resource constraints.
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ISSN:2073-8994
2073-8994
DOI:10.3390/sym17040607