Q 631. What is Pairwise Comparison? Provide an example to illustrate how it helps in solution identification in a DMAIC project?

 

Note for website visitors -

• This platform hosts two weekly questions, one on Tuesday and the other on Friday. 
• All previous questions can be found here: https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/lean-six-sigma-business-excellence-questions/. 
• To participate in the current question, please visit the forum homepage at https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/.
• The question will be open until Tuesday or Friday at 5 PM Indian Standard Time, depending on the launch day. 
• Responses will not be visible until they are reviewed, and only non-plagiarised answers with less than 5-10% plagiarism will be approved. 
• If you are unsure about plagiarism, please check your answer using a plagiarism checker tool such as https://smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker/ before submitting. 
• All correct answers shall be published, and the top-rated answer will be displayed first. The author will receive an honorable mention in our Business Excellence dictionary at https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/business-excellence-dictionary-glossary/ along with the related term.

• Some people seem to be using AI platforms to find forum answers. This is a risky approach as AI responses are error prone as our questions are application-oriented (they are never straightforward). Have a look at this funny example - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/topic/39458-using-ai-to-respond-to-forum-questions/

• We also use an AI content detector at https://crossplag.com/ai-content-detector/. Only answers with less than 15-20% AI-generated content will be approved.

Pairwise comparison is a method or process for ranking from a group of alternatives by comparing them against each other in pairs. We compare set of options using head to head pairs and judge which one is the most preferred of all. It is useful in making strategic decisions.
Example is to find the best color for a new car launch for display: All the group of people discussing about a color options like Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Orange and comparing it in pairs like Red Vs Green & Blue Vs Yellow with all possible options.

The color with more votes will be the winner. 

Possible comparisons from list of options is n(n-1)/2 where 'n' stands for number of options. 

As we are comparing 5 colors in the above the available options would be (5x4)/2 = 10 Options.

Some of the answers were not approved as they had a high AI generated content while some were incorrect.

There are no winners for this answer.

It was an easier question to answer provided an example was taken and explained. In Pairwise comparison, alternative solutions are compared to each other in pairs and then the one which wins the maximum times is the selected solution.