Y. Zare Mehrjerdi - Department of Industrial Engineering, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran,

The hierarchical TOPSIS model used in this article is able to grasp the ambiguity exists in the utilized information and the fuzziness appears in the human judgments and preferences. The use of the hierarchical fuzzy TOPSIS methodology offers a number of benefits: (1) being a systematic model and straight forward one for working on; and (2) capable of capturing human's appraisal of ambiguity when management would like to deal with complex multiple objective situations. The hierarchical fuzzy TOPSIS is in some way superior to the other Fuzzy multi criterion decision making techniques, such as fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and classical fuzzy TOPSIS methods. This is because while in the hierarchical structure no pair-wise comparisons among criteria, sub-criteria, and alternatives are necessary to be made, it is already being taken into consideration by the model. The objectives of this paper are two folds: (1) utilizing hierarchical fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) approach to evaluate the most suitable RFID-based systems decision, and (2) to highlight key risks and benefits of radio frequency identification technology in healthcare industry. Due to the fact that a better management of health care system is related to the full understanding of the technologies implemented and the system under consideration, sufficient background on the radio frequency identification technology is provided and the RFID systems most likely management would face with and select one are provided for decisions to be made on them.

RFID Technology, RFID-based system selection, Healthcare applications, Hierarchical fuzzy TOPSIS