A Multicriteria Decision Making Model for Outsourcing Heavy Transportation Activities: (Case Study: Iran's Oil, Gas, and Petrochemical Industries

Heavy transportation plays a leading role in the construction and development of infrastructure of industries. Consequently, transportation of heavy, expensive equipment has drawn the attention of many organizations around the world. This paper proposes a multicriteria decision-making model to assess the performance of firms dealing with the logistics and transportation of heavy equipment. First, a number of evaluation criteria were determined by reviewing research works in this area, interviewing experts and using the Delphi method. Afterward, a panel of experts compared the evaluation criteria, and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to determine the relative importance of the evaluation criteria. Then, Fuzzy Technique of Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (Fuzzy TOPSIS) was utilized to assess the performance of firms active in the area of heavy equipment transportation. Finally, the assessment procedure was conducted by ELimination Et Choice Translating Reality (ELECTRE). A case study of firms active in the heavy transportation within oil, gas and petrochemical industries in Iran was used to implement the proposed multicriteria framework. Results of both Fuzzy TOPSIS and ELECTRE methods showed that the A7 organization is the leading one in the transportation of heavy industrial equipment. In addition, both these methods provided a similar ranking of other organizations active in the transportation of heavy industrial equipment.