Application of exploratory factor analysis method in the evaluating the competitiveness of port services

This applied research has been conducted to evaluate the competitiveness of port services using exploratory factor analysis and importance- performance analysis methods. First, by studying the ports competiveness literatures, 53 indicators of competitiveness of port services has been identified, And to reduce the number of variables affecting the competitiveness of ports and the formation of a new structure for them (Based on the correlations between variables), exploratory factor analysis method was used. Based on the obtained results from 53 identified indicators, in the factor analysis, only 27 of indicator have loadings on the eight factors of Logistics Cost, Connectivity, Port facility, Port Service and Availability, Safety and security, Efficiency and Productivity, Reliability, Hinterland condition. The obtained results from confirmatory factor analysis in this study showed that, among the eight factors, factors of Logistics Cost and factors of Connectivity have greatest influence on the port competitiveness. And factors of Reliability and factors of Hinterland condition have least influence on the port competitiveness. And also the results of the importance and performance analysis showed that among of eight factors, respectively efficiency and productivity factor has the highest and Hinterland condition has the lowest the difference between the performance averages from importance average. And also the Position of each factor in the quarters of the importance and performance matrix indicates that other than the second factor (Connectivity) and fifth factor (Safety and Security) all other factors located in a quarter one. Thus it can be concluded that the services of studies port from the perspective of located factors in quarter one (logistics costs, port facilities, port services, productivity and efficiency, reliability and the Hinterland) has a low performance And needs performance improvement according to their importance

Identification and ranking of causes of delay in container handling operation by TOPSIS method

This applied research has been conducted to identify and rank the causes of delay in container handling operation in two stages. In the first, having considered the daily census of container handling operation in the pertinent terminal of the port, As well, brain storming cessions attended by experts from the studied container terminals were held during which twenty seven numbers of causes of delay were detected. In the second stage, having considered the detected factors from the first stage, the probability of the causes occurrence, the extent of impact of causes on process after their occurrence and probability of causes detection before having effect on process have been determined by experts in form of a scale ranging from one to ten, Finally based on the obtained scores by each one of the causes, the decision matrix was formed and the mentioned causes were ranked by TOPSIS method. The abstained results showed that the causes of delays in loading and unloading operations in studied container terminals have significant different in the terms of probability of the causes occurrence, the extent of impact of causes on process after their occurrence and probability of causes detection before having effect on process. Finally to mitigation of these causes several strategies have been presented