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Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment

WASPAS (Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment) is a ranking multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method introduced by Zavadskas, E. K., Turskis, Z., Antucheviciene, J., Zakarevicius, A. in 2012. It turns a decision matrix of alternatives scored on multiple criteria into a structured, reproducible result.

Key highlights

  • Follows a transparent, reproducible computational procedure that can be audited step by step.
  • Handles multiple criteria of differing scales and units within a single decision matrix.

Intuition

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How it works

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When to use it

Q_i ∈ [0,1] when all raw values are positive and normalised to [0,1]. λ=0.5 (default) gives equal weight to the additive (SAW) and multiplicative (WPM) components. λ=1 reduces WASPAS to SAW; λ=0 reduces it to WPM. The seminal paper shows that λ=0.5 maximises accuracy compared to using either component alone.

Strengths & limitations

Strengths
  • Follows a transparent, reproducible computational procedure that can be audited step by step.
  • Handles multiple criteria of differing scales and units within a single decision matrix.
Limitations
  • May exhibit rank reversal when alternatives are added to or removed from the set.
  • Assumes full compensation — a strong score on one criterion can offset a weak score on another.

Common pitfalls

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Sources

  1. 1.
    Zavadskas, E. K., Turskis, Z., Antucheviciene, J., Zakarevicius, A. (2012). Optimization of weighted aggregated sum product assessment. Elektronika ir Elektrotechnika

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Cite this page

ScholarGate. (2026, June 2). WASPAS. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/decision-making/waspas