Rule 8a is used to handle the case that some experts assigned “X” (no relationship) with less confidence while some confidently assigned
an integer on the weak side value (having some degree of relationship) for the same relationship. In this case, these
experts show different opinions in determining the weighting with different confidence degrees. Therefore, the smaller weighting with
higher confidence is adopted as the integrated weighting, and the confidence degree is set to “S”. An illustrative example of this rule is given
in Table 3, in which two experts (E1 and E5) have not confidently assigned “X”, and three experts (E2, E3, and E4) have assigned an integer on
the weak side value to represent the same relationship with high confidence; therefore, the integrated rating is equal to 1 by finding the
minimum of values 3, 1 and 2, and the integrated confidence degree is “S” (Sure). Another rule that is similar to this rule is given as follows: