Title: Economic risk assessment of EPC projects using fuzzy TOPSIS approach

Authors: Farzad Firouzi Jahantigh; Behnam Malmir; Behzad Aslani Avilaq

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran ' Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, USA ' Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

Abstract: Economic recession in developing countries has forced authorities to set policies in order to mitigate financial risks such as inflation, liquidity and credit, as investigated in this project. The main goals of this research were to identify significant financial risks of engineering procurement construction (EPC) projects and to evaluate and prioritise the financial risks based on the well-known fuzzy TOPSIS model. A case study in a refinery project with national domain was considered, with emphasis on big investment, refinery capacity in gross domestic product, and the role of EPC projects in the development of the country. In this research, risks were categorised and extracted by interviewing experts of EPC projects in various levels of authority, and then risk prioritisation was conducted according to the fuzzy TOPSIS model. Finally, the proposed model was compared to other models in the literature and to expertise method in order to determine its progress.

Keywords: economic risks; EPC projects; fuzzy TOPSIS decision making model; risk assessment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISE.2017.086349

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2017 Vol.27 No.2, pp.161 - 179

Received: 14 Sep 2015
Accepted: 15 Jun 2016
Published online: 04 Sep 2017 *

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