fuzzy analytic hierarchy process

One of the prominent contract types for project execution is the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) method, which serves as a mechanism for transferring project activities and associated risks to contractors. Given the significance of risk assessment in oil and gas projects, particularly for contractors, the primary objective of this research is to identify and rank the risks surrounding EPC projects in Karoon Oil and Gas Exploitation Company. Additionally, this study seeks to propose effective strategies for managing these risks. 

The research methodology consists of several stages. Initially, relevant risks in EPC projects are identified, extracted, and categorized through a literature review and expert opinions. At this stage, the research team compiled a list of potential risks by reviewing scientific sources and conducting interviews with experts in the oil and gas industry. Subsequently, a fuzzy Delphi method, based on the insights of five experts and 15 criteria, was applied to select the key risks. The experts' opinions were collected and analyzed using fuzzy numbers to reach a relative consensus on the primary risks. In the next stage, the selected risks were assessed and ranked using a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) based on their probability of occurrence and severity of impact. To enhance the accuracy of expert evaluations and minimize subjective biases, a fuzzy system was employed, utilizing fuzzy numbers instead of precise values to represent expert opinions.

The results of this study reveal that the key risks in the company's EPC projects, ranked in order of priority, include inflation rate, employer pressure to halt execution, rising equipment costs, delays in financial payments, the presence of incompatible factors and the use of substandard materials, deficiencies in initial design, and ineffective engineering management. These findings help contractors recognize and plan for the management of major risks. Additionally, a scenario-based cognitive map has been developed to address the identified risks, allowing contractors to devise appropriate strategies for risk mitigation. By identifying and prioritizing these risks, contractors can formulate scenario-based strategies to manage them effectively, thereby reducing the likelihood of adverse consequences in Karoon Oil and Gas Exploitation Company. This cognitive map serves as a roadmap for contractors in managing risks in EPC projects. For instance, recommended strategies include meticulous planning, contract management, financial management, procurement management, and stakeholder management. The primary goal of these strategies is to prevent potential challenges in project execution. 

This study underscores the critical importance of risk assessment in EPC projects. Contractors must identify major risks and implement appropriate management strategies to mitigate potential challenges. Analytical tools such as the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process and scenario-based cognitive maps significantly aid contractors in this regard and play a crucial role in the successful execution of EPC projects.

The promotion of electric vehicles is an effective strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, there are significant challenges that hinder the implementation of this promotion, which must be identified and evaluated to ensure effective policymaking. This research aims to identify and prioritize the barriers to promoting electric vehicles in Iran. The identification of these barriers has been carried out in two steps. In the first step, through literature review, the barriers have been identified and classified into four main categories or criteria, including 1) supply-side barriers, 2) infrastructure barriers, 3) demand-side barriers, and 4) creative destruction barriers (obstacles created by government actions, policymakers, or owners of outdated technologies that prevent the creation of a competitive environment and the replacement of technologies and new products). After the initial identification of the barriers, in an expert analysis, these barriers were reviewed by various experts from companies operating in the field of internal combustion engine vehicles and electric vehicles. Finally, after reviewing the barriers, the main criteria along with 23 sub-criteria were prioritized. Experts from relevant industries, universities, and government institutions reviewed and prioritized these barriers through the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) method. An online questionnaire was used for pairwise comparisons, completed by 24 experts. The results indicate that infrastructure barriers are the most significant, followed by creative destruction barriers, supply-side barriers, and demand-side barriers. Among the 23 sub-criteria, the unavailability of public charging infrastructure, insufficient repair and maintenance infrastructure, and significant subsidies for fossil fuels were ranked highest.

The contemporary world is full of unexpected events and uncertainties. Futures research is an approach that can eliminate ambiguities and allow for greater understanding of the future. In recent years, researchers have proposed a variety of methods for future research that the selection of the appropriate method with regard to the field of application and influential indicators will be a challenging and complex decision. Especially in the field of defense; because of: dynamics and agility of the environment, ambiguous and uncertain conditions, wide range of influencing variables and the variety of assignment missions; the choice of futures method will be more important and complex. Identification and prioritization of influential criteria can help experts in this field to make the best decision and improve organizational performance. For this purpose, in this study two methods of fuzzy Delphi and Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) have been used. Applying fuzzy logic in addition to expert-based approaches (Delphi and hierarchical analysis) along with the consensus of experts also takes into account the uncertainties in human judgments. In the purpose dimension, present study is in the applied research group and in the method dimension, in the descriptive survey research group that has been analyzed by a mixed (qualitative and quantitative) approach. Finally, 12 criteria for evaluating defense research futures were identified, weighed and prioritized.

The selection of project portfolio is the main problem in project-based organizations. In project selection, optimized decision to maximizing utilization of limited resources and achieving organizational goals by considering restrictions are important. Therefore, to facilitate project portfolio selection in project-based organizations, an efficient model is proposed that is able to consider limitations, goals, and priorities of the organization in selecting the optimal combination of projects. The proposed model is a hybrid and flexible one which, including four main steps. First, with initial screening, to save time and money by using non-compensatory method, some of the poor candidate options are deleted. Then, due to multi-criteria nature of the problem, qualitative and quantitative criteria, and uncertainty of data in real world, the projects are ranked using fuzzy analytic hierarchy processes and uncertain judgments of decision-makers. To generate project baskets, integer linear programming (ILP), backpack model, is employed modifying the coefficients of the objective function of each project to preserve multi-criteria rating of projects, and then evaluate and rank the baskets. To validate the proposed model, we have carried out selection of project portfolio in the oil refining industry.

Today, a continuous and proper performance assessment is important to all stakeholders in an organization. Continuous improvement of performance will not be possible without examination and information about the extent to which the goals are met, and without identifying the challenges faced by the organization and gaining feedback from the extent to which compiled policies are implemented and identifying those areas that require serious improvement; and all of this is not possible without performance assessment. Based on the explanation of the concept of virtuous and jihadi organization, this type of organization has a fundamental principle that emphasizes spirituality and moral-Islamic-human values. Nowadays, with the advancements in management, the effect of spirituality on other components of virtuous organizations has been established; hence in this study, we seek to measure the effectiveness and prioritization of the components of virtuous and jihadi organizations. Through the method of Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process, it is tried to rank the component of virtuous and jihadi organizations and assessed the performance of these types of organizations; then we obtained the importance of the components by placing the hierarchy of the components (predetermined) in the Analytic Hierarchy Process questionnaire (paired comparisons). Also, in another questionnaire, the experts were asked about the organization performance relative to all components. Finally, we presented a final assessment of the organization's performance. Among the macro criteria, "flexibility" has the highest priority and "wisdom" has the lowest priority. Also, among the minor criteria, "the natural selection of the best person as the director" has the highest priority and "Women's employment in limited form and as needed" has the lowest priority. In the main criteria, the organization has had the best and worst performance in terms of "organizational brotherhood" and "wisdom", respectively. Also, in relation to sub-criteria, the organization has had the best and worst performance in "fixing errors with humor and indirect" and "self-control", respectively.

The main aim of this research is to asses contributing factors in supply chain competitiveness in rubber industry. To this point, first, using the extended review in literature of competitiveness, components were identified and conceptual model of research was presented. Data were collected from managers and experts of 5 Iranian rubber manufacturers. To analyze the data and testing the proposed model in statistical phase of research, partial least squares (PLS) method, and to prioritizing contributing factors in supply chain competitiveness a hybrid approach was used and Path coefficients of PLS and weights of BWM and FUZZY AHP were combined. The results of statistical phase of research indicate that “supply chain partnership”, “knowledge management process capability”, “green supply chain management”, and “supplier segmentation” have a significant positive effect on supply chain competitiveness. The results of prioritizing contributing factors in supply chain competitiveness using MCDM methods indicate that “partnership in finance” is the most important factor in supply chain competitiveness and after that, “knowledge application” and “partnership in R&D” were located in second and third priority. Finally some practical strategies for managers are discussed and some suggestions for future research are provided.

Strategy maps show the value creation path in any organizations that includes the strategic objectives of organization. Strategic objectives can provide focus on organization’s resources based on balanced scorecard and since the organizations when developing their strategy map, face with a number of different objectives and relationships between them, therefore it is necessary to use a practical approach to explain the relationship between strategic objectives. Hence, this article aims to provide a hybrid approach for identifying causal relationships between strategic objectives for drawing a strategic map, So that with minimum number of relationships, the maximum impact among the strategic objectives is clarified in the map. In this regard, the importance of all possible relationships is determined by fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and then strategic map was drawn by goal programming with considering to objectives of minimizing the number of relationships and maximizing the total importance of the selected relationships. The FAHP results show “supporting demand-oriented researches”, “Strengthen inter-agency cooperation” and “Supporting strategic science and technology” objectives respectively have been the most important in the customer, processes and learning and growth levels of strategic map. In the following, by goal programming with focus on maximum reach of strategic objectives according to their weights, the minimum connections (14 relationships from 26 relationships) were selected to draw the strategic map. The systematic approach presented in this paper could be the basis of developing the strategic map of all organizations.

Due to continuous changes in business environment, constraints in achieving profit, and severe competition among banks and credit and financial institutions, there is an increasing need for congruity between goals, strategies and structures. From structure designing viewpoint, therefore, proper channel must be provided for harmony and Standardization of structures with organization’s environment and strategies. This study is set out to analyze organization’s structural aspects using FAHP and examines the effect of substantive aspects including strategies, environment and technology on structural aspects. Due to severalty in indexes and complexity in decisions FAHP method is used. Results show that concentration is the most important factor in designing organizational structures and formality is the least important one. We also concluded that environment index is the most important factor.

Due to existence of certain conditions and developing forces at the level in the future wars, accuracy and velocity of the preparation procedure have special importance and is very vital and therefore it is very important to select optimal place/site as a preparation center. Thus this investigation tries to represent a practical model to select optimal places of preparation centers using mathematical models and location finding and using suggestions of elites and military experts in addition to considering the situations like minimizing the length of route and cost of operation. The current study’s purpose is applied and by nature it is descriptive-survey in which library and field research have been conducted for data collection as well as using targeted judgement method has been used in sampling. To achieve the goals in first stage, influential parameters have been identified and in the three phases: “velocity of preparation process”, “security of supportive routes”, and the possibility of establishment of equipment and sources will be calculated getting assistance from fuzzy hierarchal analysis and using elites’ opinions. Then the relative importance of the potential options of research is calculated by help of commanders and operational managers and at the next step the mathematical model of problem will be presented and designed through help obtained data and location models on the networks. Finally, using some designed scenarios and identifying fifteen options as selective candidates of supply center (network knots), the proposed model will be explained and the results will be analyzed.

Security of information systems as a new area of information technology is of a great importance in creating confidence and growth in the use of information systems. Although in recent years many researchers and IT experts have focused on the technical aspects of security, but less attention has been paid to its organizational and managerial aspects. To investigate the factors affecting on the creating and maintaining of security of information systems, this study identifies the inter-organizational factors. Then, by designing a questionnaire and using Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchical Process (FAHP) technique, the weights and ranks of factors are calculated. The results show that human factor is the most important inter-organizational factor that influences information systems security. Also, the lack of information about the value and importance of information is identified as the most important sub factor.

Customer value refers to the potential interaction of customer and enterprise in the certain periods of time. As companies recognize customer value it can provide customized services for different customers, they can achieve to an effective customer relationship management. This research focuses on Banking Industry and integrates data mining techniques and management issues in order to systematically analyze the customer values. First it applies Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Processing (FAHP) in order to weighting variables and then imports DFMT model to the k-means technique, for clustering customers according to the specific criteria. Using proposed scoring model establishes the customer value pyramid and categorizes customers in four spectrums. The customer value pyramid helps to separately determining of each customer value to giving appropriate services to them in proportion with the class value. The statistical population was 285 customers of Tejarat bank branches of Zanjan city in Iran. In the resulted customer pyramid, the first spectrum is the Platinum customer which is composed of two rows of the pyramid called H1 and H2. These two rows in pyramid have the highest value and have the most profitability for the bank. Second spectrum, is called golden customers which has three rows in pyramid called H3, H4, H5. Third spectrums are Silver customers which are laid in H6, H7, H8 rows of spectrum. Forth spectrum, are leaden customers that are H9 and H10 rows of customer pyramid. This spectrum receives and wastes resources of the bank and bank should respect and bear high risks.

It is obvious that recession situation leads to demands reduction. Therefore، companies encounter challenges and weak businesses are disappeared and resistant and strength companies remain. In this situation considering the marketing department especially marketing strategy play a significant role. There are many marketing strategies. Companies use these strategies based on their needs or formulate new strategy with regard to their internal and external circumstances. This paper identify and prioritize the important factors in determination and selection appropriate marketing strategy through reviewing previous studies related to strategies used in recession condition and interviewing with experts. Thus، fuzzy and group analytic hierarchy process، which is a common and widely used decision making method، have been used in this study also the excel software was used in this study. The results of this study indicate that the major factors influencing the selection of appropriate marketing strategies، in order of preference، are price، product، distribution networks، and staff.

Enterprise resource planning systems (ERP) for facilitating the operation of organizations and integration of the process of business data are an important competitive advantage for organizations. To the successful implementation of an ERP system is essential to choose a system that can be aligned with the needs of the organization. Therefore، a proper decision-making approach for the selection of an ERP system is required so that take into accounts the needs and characteristics of the ERP system and also the interaction between them. So in this study، an integrated decision-making framework for the selection of ERP systems based on the concept of QFD، fuzzy analytic hierarchy process and Vikor provided. The framework makes the needs of the organization and also features of ERP system. To validate the model، the model is applied in a case. The results of this study show that among of the criteria، the cost and system performance criteria are the most important and sixth supplier is the most proper supplier. Keywords: Enterprise resource planning (ERP)، Quality Function Deployment (QFD)، Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process، Vikor Method.

It is obvious that recession situation leads to demands reduction. Therefore, companies encounter challenges and weak businesses are disappeared and resistant and strength companies remain. In this situation considering the marketing department especially marketing strategy play a significant role. There are many marketing strategies. Companies use these strategies based on their needs or formulate new strategy with regard to their internal and external circumstances. This paper identify and prioritize the important factors in determination and selection appropriate marketing strategy through reviewing previous studies related to strategies used in recession condition and interviewing with experts. Thus, fuzzy and group analytic hierarchy process, which is a common and widely used decision making method, have been used in this study also the excel software was used in this study. The results of this study indicate that the major factors influencing the selection of appropriate marketing strategies, in order of preference, are price, product, distribution networks, and staff.

Nowadays in most of the organizations such as project-based organizations, outsourcing the projects and transferring the activities are followed by concentrating in core capabilities, reducing size, achieving the best performance and controlling and transparency of costs. Since each of the project of outsourcing commit the responsibility of performing each part project activities to a contractor, for a specific period of time and determined costs, this outsourcing process is a project. Therefore, despite its numerous advantages, in some situation it fails, that the most important reason for this failure is lack of using appropriate methods and techniques of management in risk assessment. As a result, the purpose of this paper is presenting a risk assessment model in outsourcing process using the Analytic hierarchy process and PROMETHEE methods in fuzzy environment.

In today's world due to the advantages of the supply chain for organizations, the majority of organizations have joined the supply chain. On the other hand, Performance Assessment is an essential element for the development of modern organizations. Because of joining the organizations to supply chain, organizations performance linked together along the supply chain and the measure of an organization's performance rate alone doesn’t indicate the performance of the supply chain. For this reason, in this study, we tried to review the previous literature and present a Comprehensive conceptual model of supply chain performance indicators in the balanced scorecard model. Then, BY using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process, the measured weights Model of Balanced Scorecard in the food industry were calculated. After getting feedback from some professionals in the supply chain and doing the calculation, it has been found that the customer perspective is most important and internal process, financial and learning and growth perspective in the supply chain performance importance, respectively. The quality of the food supply chain performance metrics is also the most important indicator and efficiency, competitiveness and reliability indicators are important, respectively.

Identifying appropriate decision making methods, shapes one of major concern of Information technology managers. Fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) can be a good option in this field. Developing FAHP model, in this research 2 Information technology management capability criterion options is evaluated and reported, including information technology capabilities and Data quality. In this study Polling Expert opinion on options and criteria weights, shapes inputs of the model. According to obtained results Fuzzy AHP is applicable in such decisions and is an appropriate apparatus. Findings indicate that human resource is the most important organizational information technology capability. Also intrinsic criteria of data are the most critical dimension of Data quality.

In today’s complex and competitive business environment، success of organizations depend on their knowledge of their strengths and weakness and continuous improvement in their key indicators. So، achievement to a comprehensive evaluation model is the major concern of the managers of these organizations that it can help them to obtain an accurate picture of their organization and its performance. The Balanced Scored Card (BSC) is one of the efficient evaluation models that، in addition to financial evaluating of organization، it evaluates the performance of the organization from customer، internal process and learning and growth dimensions. In this study، by using the BSC and fuzzy AHP method، the effectiveness of the case study company’s strategic planning has been evaluated. For this purpose، the existing gap in performance of different BSC’s perspectives has been identified and then factors that contribute to creating these gaps have been ranked.

Knowledge management can act as a different element in E-commerce environment، and help people to accept their new roles and responsibilities easier and faster in e-commerce environment. Successful implementation of knowledge management requires an analysis of the key factors of knowledge management، viable action based on known element. This matter causes better and precise usage of knowledge and achieving beneficial competition in E-banking. Hence، in this study includes descriptive-analytical، we have focused on impact of knowledge management strategies and leadership factor in E-banking، Mellat bank of Qom was chosen to work on this project practically. And for prioritization of criteria is used fuzzy analytic hierarchy method. The results indicate that the three main criteria of «top management support، knowledge management strategy and organizational strategy»، respectively، are of paramount importance.

The Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP) determines the relative importance of a set of alternatives in a multi-criteria decision problem. AHP has a hierarchial structure and based on pairwise comparisons of the project alternatives as well as pairwise comparisons of the multi criteria. Two separate algorithms have been presented for measuring the inconsistency ratioes of pairwise comparisons matrix and hierarchical structure. In this paper these algorithms and one of the approximation methods, have been extended for measuring the inconsistency ratioes and alternatives’ weights in fuzzy AHP. A numerical example is used to illustrate these methods.