A STATISTICAL APPROACH TO CONSISTENCY IN AHP

When proposing the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a means of prioritisation of a number of issues, T.L. Saaty [1] suggested that a flat 10% inconsistency tolerance be permitted in a pairwise comparison decision matrix. This 10% figure has since been utilised almost universally 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. An alternative criterion, which incidentally provides greater flexibility to the user, is presented.