Evaluation and Ranking of Iran’s Railway Regions Using Window Data Envelopment Analysis Approach Model

Today, evaluating organizational unit performance plays a unique role in allocating organizational and financial resources. Achieving sustainable success for the organization in the group will increase efficiency and better use of resources due to increased competitiveness and stakeholders' expectations. The importance of improving efficiency in the state-owned railway company of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which uses crucial and limited infrastructure equipment (such as locomotives) and skilled operational personnel and other similar items, is much broader. The data envelopment analysis (DEA) window analysis approach is one of the best expressions to evaluate organizational units (railway regions of the country) with similar tasks and identical inputs and outputs. However, geographical location, the different nature of access to cargo and passenger transportation bases, and the difference in access to the infrastructure of lines and fleets complicate evaluating and comparing regions' performance. For this purpose, in this study, the DEA window analysis method has been used to design and compile a model to measure railway company regions' performance. The studied areas were ranked based on technical efficiency from 1395 to 1400 Solar Hijri. The results indicate the effect of different areas focusing on freight or passenger transportation and access to logistics centers and freight sources on their efficiency evaluation. In this research, using experts' opinions from 5 selected border regions and headquarters, first, the primary indicators focusing on the importance of cargo transportation were selected by the fuzzy screening method and then evaluated by the DEA window analysis method, depending on which the output ranks were evaluated. Based on technical and pure technical efficiency, Hormozgan, Southeast, Northeast 2, Azerbaijan, and Khorasan, respectively.