An Extended VIKOR-Based Marine Equipment Reliability Assessment Method with Picture Fuzzy Information

Reliable operation of marine equipment is crucial for ensuring vessel performance and safeguarding the safety of personnel and the marine environment. However, the complexity of evaluation criteria and the subjectivity inherent in expert judgments pose significant challenges for effective reliability assessment. To address these challenges, this study proposes an extended VIKOR method within a group decision-making (GDM) framework based on picture fuzzy numbers. The method first collects expert evaluations through questionnaires and voting to construct individual decision matrices, and then it applies a newly developed entropy-based approach to determine attribute weights, resulting in a group-weighted decision matrix. Subsequently, an extended VIKOR model is introduced, where the group utility measure is derived from one positive reference matrix and two negative reference matrices, while the group regret measure is based on two negative reference matrices. To improve assessment precision, this study also introduces a novel normalized projection measure to evaluate the closeness between decision matrices. Finally, two ranking strategies are developed, for static and dynamic environments, respectively. The proposed method is validated through a case study on marine equipment reliability assessment, confirming its effectiveness and feasibility. This study provides valuable insights for both theoretical research and practical applications in maritime engineering.