Global criterion formation in producer’s decisions

This article delves into decision making in producer’s activity under shortage of financials, materials’ and human resources. Every decision to be made is generally a multicriterial task. At the same time these criteria are controversial: amelioration of one criterion leads to degradation of another. That is why solution finding with the use of mathematical methods is worth to consider. Hereafter theoretical stuff and practical exemplification of decision making under multicriterial conditions are presented. In many mathematical methods of decision making multicriterial task is simplified to one criterion. Therefore the main attention is paid to global criterion method, providing a means to define optimum out of several criteria. The point of the method assumes to weigh up the initial criteria and create a single global criterion, serving as a key to decision making. The weight coefficient of each criterion is defined by experts. There are several methods of combining criteria. Nevertheless in practice three methods are used: criteria relation, criteria multiplication and criteria summing up. The methods are analyzed and practical examples are shown in the article. Other approaches to combining criteria are also examined. It is generally agreed that every method of decision making has its own pros and cons, which in turn define the optimum range of its application.