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MENTAL MODEL · M6632

Full Consistency Method

Full Consistency Method
DecidemediumDecision Science
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Updated 2026-08-11

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INTRODUCTION

English translation pending.

CORE DEFINITION

The Full Consistency Method (FUCOM) is a criterion weighting procedure introduced by Dragan Pamucar, Zeljko Stevic, and Sinisa Sremac in 2018. The analyst first ranks the criteria by importance, then states the relative importance ratio between each pair of adjacent criteria, which requires only one comparison per adjacent pair instead of the full pairwise matrix that AHP demands. A mathematical optimization then solves for weights whose ratios match the stated comparisons, satisfying full consistency by construction. Efficiency is the method's main advantage, and its constraint is that the initial ranking is a judgment no consistency check can validate.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

- Use ranking first: order the criteria by importance before assigning any numeric ratios. - Use adjacent ratios: compare each criterion only with the one ranked immediately above it. - Use optimization solve: let the model derive weights rather than setting them by hand.

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

Full consistency is achieved by construction rather than by post-hoc checking. Because the analyst supplies only adjacent ratios, the optimization can solve for a weight vector whose internal ratios reproduce every stated comparison exactly, so no inconsistency can survive. This removes the AHP consistency ratio entirely and cuts the number of judgments from quadratic to linear. The trade-off is that all judgment quality is concentrated in the ranking and the adjacent ratios: if those are arbitrary, the resulting weights are consistently derived from arbitrary inputs.

MINIMUM ACTION

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Source support: Explicit

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