Title: After-sales indicators in the liquefied petroleum gas industry: a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making approach in an uncertain environment

Authors: Amir Mehdiabadi; Amir Karbassi Yazdi; Peter Fernandes Wanke; Henrique Luiz Correa

Addresses: Department of Industrial Management, Mahan Business School, Tehran, 156917314, Iran ' School of Engineering, Universidad Católica del Norte, Larrondo 1281, 1781421, Coquimbo, Chile ' Center for Logistics Studies, COPPEAD – The Graduate School of Business Administration, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ' Crummer Graduate School of Business, Rollins College, Winter Park, Fl, USA

Abstract: Many stakeholders are involved in liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) after-sales service. Using soft computing, we rank the after-sales service of Iranian LPG companies in terms of global competitors' best practices, comparing four global companies that offer after-sales services as benchmarks. Fuzzy importance and performance analysis (FIPA) was used to identify customary after-sales performance indicators. Then, we used step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) to determine their relative weights. Using fuzzy complex proportional assessment (FCOPRAS), we ranked the top 12 Iranian LPG companies in terms of market share. FIPA, SWARA, and FCOPRAS are combined in this paper for the first time to identify the most important factors for ranking LPG companies in the world-class after-sales services category. [Received: January 18, 2022; Accepted: June 18, 2022]

Keywords: after-sales service; fuzzy MCDM; grey relational analysis; GRA; LPG industry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2023.129582

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2023 Vol.32 No.4, pp.392 - 416

Received: 18 Jan 2022
Accepted: 18 Jun 2022
Published online: 14 Mar 2023 *

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