A state-of-the-art survey of evaluation based on distance from average solution (EDAS): Developments and applications

Evaluation based on distance from average solution (EDAS), developed in 2015, is one of the well-known and frequently utilized methods which is applied for different types of decision making problems. The output of EDAS is a ranking order of alternatives based on their aggregated distance scores. In this regard, the literature lacks a comprehensive literature review on the developments and applications of EDAS. For this purpose, this study conducts a comprehensive literature review on developments, extensions, and applications of the EDAS method. First, the EDAS method and its well-known extensions are shortly introduced. Next, a theoretical literature review of studies is presented. A meta analysis is performed in terms of publication year, authors, authors’ countries, journals, and combined methods, uncertainty sets. Practical problems of the EDAS are categorized into nine application groups as agriculture, business management, construction management, energy and natural resources, healthcare management, information technology (IT), manufacturing, supply chain management, and transportation management. Results of this study can empower real-life decision makers to handle vague and incomplete information involved in decision process, and express opinions of different stakeholders in different applications under novel extensions of the EDAS.