Supporting Decision-Making in the Technical Equipment Selection Process by the Method of Contradictory Evaluations

Creating new research concepts is an important element in supporting the development of production systems and their components, including technical equipment. Many technical devices are characterized by a high degree of complexity, which justifies the need for a specific approach to their assessment and becomes an inspiration to search for innovative methods of assessment. As part of the proposed new approach to the assessment of technical objects, studies were carried out in which users of chainsaws assessed their technical and functional features, taking into account the options: advantage and disadvantage. The number of positive and negative assessments of a given feature was used in the developed methodology to calculate the utility potential index. The proposed formula for calculating the utility potential index is a contribution to the current state of knowledge in the field of evaluation of technical objects and their features, as well as comparisons between technical objects. Based on the definition of the utility potential index, its value ranges from 0.0 to 1.0. The conducted research and calculation results indicated the accumulation of the lowest and the highest values of the utility potential index for one of the functional features, i.e., the price of the equipment. The utilitarian effect of the study is the creation of a tool supporting the selection of equipment for the needs of its users. The research results can also be used as a suggestion for the improvement of the indicated features of technical devices by their manufacturers.