Selecting Appropriate Quayside Equipment for Grain Unloading Using TOPSIS and Entropy Shannon Methods

Now day selection of optimum quay Sid equipment for loading and discharging the dry bulk cargo can maximize the overall efficiency of Terminal. For this end the current applied study was implemented by the aim to choose the best equipment for discharging dry bulk cargoes in BIK Grain terminal using TOPSIS and Shannon entropy method in three phases. In the 1st phase, the most important decision-making criteria for choosing the most appropriate equipment were identified by using experts' interview and investigating the previous researches and holding brain storm meetings with the Grain Terminal's experts. Then in the 2nd phase, the weight of every identified criteria using Shannon entropy method, Was determined. The abstained result from Shannon entropy method indicates that service facility criterion with the scale of 0.06 has earned the maximum and operator cost criterion with the scale of 0.034 obtained the least. In the 3rd phase, using scale 1-9 of each equipment regarding shall be scored based on the criteria and according to the obtained scores for each equipment of the decision- making matrix of the TOPSIS method was established and finally, with respect to the weight of each earned criteria, the equipment shall be scored in the 2nd phase and the most optimum shall be selected. The final results from TOPSIS method indicates that unloader with (Ci=0.91346) enjoys the 1st and the vacuum with (Ci=0.26382) the 2nd and grab with (Ci=0.00000) ranks.