A STATISTICAL APPROACH TO CONSISTENCY IN AHP

When proposing the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a means of prio ritisation of a number of issues, T.L. Saaty [1] suggested that a flat 10% inconsistency tolerance be permitted in a pairwise comparison dec ision matrix. This 10% figure has since been utilised almost universal ly and without question. In this paper it is shown that any such limit , based on a fixed percentage, is inequitable to matrices of different orders to an extent that might call into question the final result. A n alternative criterion, which incidentally provides greater flexibili ty to the user, is presented.