Evaluation and selection of freight forwarder for excavator manufacturer in china with adjustment on regional specification and situational analysis using STEEP-AHP-TOPSIS

The heavy equipment market in China is experiencing a considerable increase. It is supported by competitive product prices and better product quality. The company has set out strategies to increase the heavy equipment market share globally by having several distribution offices in several countries with aggressive sales. This paper aims to provide the best results in selecting the freight forwarder that is most suitable for each destination country and customer. STEEP-AHP-TOPSIS method emphasizes each destination country's regional boundaries and accommodates market preferences in selecting freight forwarders. The case study is applied to a multinational manufacturing company in China. Social, technical, economic, environmental, and political (STEEP) is used to find specific problems that directly and indirectly affect freight forwarder selection. The study also combined the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to gain weight on the criteria in conducting the assessment of the freight forwarder and Technique for Order of Preference Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to obtain the final value of the evaluation of each freight forwarder. The assessment is also based on the Importance Performance Matrix (IPM) in selecting the freight forwarders. This study's results rank seven freight forwarders of heavy equipment exports into four different quadrants and recommend the most suitable one for each destination country.