The evaluation and enhancement of quality, environmental protection and safety in seaports

The evaluation and enhancement of business processes in any organization in an uncertain environment presents one of the main requirements of ISO 9000:2008, and has a key effect on competitive advantage and long-term sustainability. The aim of this paper can be defined as the identification and discussion of some of the most important business processes of seaports, and the performances of business processes and their key performance indicators (KPIs). The complexity and importance of the treated problem calls for analytic methods rather than intuitive decisions. The existing decision variables of the considered problem are described by linguistic expressions which are modelled by triangular fuzzy numbers (TFNs). In this paper, the modified fuzzy extended analytic hierarchy process (MFAHP) is proposed. The assessment of the relative importance of each pair of performances and their KPIs are stated as a fuzzy group decision making problem. By using MFAHP, the fuzzy rank of business processes of a seaport is obtained. The model is verified through an illustrative example with real life data, where the obtained data suggest measures which should enhance business strategy and improve KPIs. The future improvement is based on benchmark and knowledge sharing.