A Proposal for a Decision-Making Tool in Third-Party Logistics (3PL) Provider Selection Based on Multi-Criteria Analysis and the Fuzzy Approach

Stefan Jovčić, Petr Průša, Momčilo Dobrodolac and Libor Švadlenka
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Stefan Jovčić: Faculty of Transport Engineering, University of Pardubice, 532 10 Pardubice, Czech Republic
Petr Průša: Faculty of Transport Engineering, University of Pardubice, 532 10 Pardubice, Czech Republic
Momčilo Dobrodolac: Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering, University of Belgrade, 11 000 Belgrade, Serbia
Libor Švadlenka: Faculty of Transport Engineering, University of Pardubice, 532 10 Pardubice, Czech Republic

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 15, 1-23

Abstract: The selection of a third-party logistics (3PL) provider is an important and demanding task for many companies and organizations dealing with distribution activities. To assist in decision making, this paper proposes the implementation of fuzzy logic. To design a fuzzy inference system (FIS), the first prerequisite is to determine a set of evaluation criteria and sub-criteria and to find the relationship between them. This task was solved by an extensive review of the literature and expert opinions on implementing the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach. The results obtained in the first part of the research, together with data collected from 20 3PL providers, were further used in the second part, which was related to the implementation of the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method. Finally, a decision-making tool for 3PL provider selection was designed as an FIS structure, where the inputs were the previously defined criteria and the output was a preference for 3PL selection. The fuzzy rules were generated on the basis of the collected empirical data, the preferences obtained by the TOPSIS method, and expert opinion using the Wang–Mendel method. The proposed fuzzy model is particularly suitable when input data are not crisp values but are provided descriptively through linguistic statements.

Keywords: 3PL provider selection; evaluation criteria; Fuzzy AHP; TOPSIS; decision making (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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