Abstract
In a shipyard production system, launching operation is vital process since launching stage is time consuming process as well as being high cost. Therefore, this is a significant issue for shipyards. Choosing the most appropriate one among launching methods gives an advantage to shipyards to obtain competitive power against their competitors. If this is done, shipyards can commit to delivery of more ships and make more profit. In this study, launching methods are evaluated in terms of various performance criteria by means of an integrated method including Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Fuzzy Information Axiom (FIA), Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), and Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analyses. Then, the dry docking technique was determined as the most convenient launching method with respect to the conflicting criteria.