An integrated cost based approach for warehouse performance evaluation: A new multiphase model

Abstract

Warehouses represent key links in domestic and international commodity flows. The increasing shortage of workers and increasing costs on the one hand, and the increasing number and stricter demands of users on the other hand lead warehouse managers to realize their operations as efficiently as possible. A proposed model has an objective of enabling companies to monitor warehouse performance in an authoritative, reliable, and simple way and define appropriate corrective measures accordingly. The proposed empirical research consists of three stages, where in the first stage a combination of Principal Component Analysis-Data Envelopment Analysis methods was applied in order to determine efficient warehouses based on 90 decision making units. In the second phase, a completely new method called Interval Fuzzy Rough Pivot Pair-wise Relative Criteria Importance Assessment method used for determining criteria weights was developed and applied, which is one of the most important novelties of this study. In the last phase, the Interval Fuzzy Rough Measurement of Alternatives and Ranking according to the Compromise Solution method was applied to rank the alternatives. Twelve criteria were observed to evaluate 21 alternatives. Based on the results, it was concluded that salary stood out as the most important criterion, while amortization stood out as the least significant criterion. On the other hand, alternatives A9 and A10 stood out as the best-ranked alternatives while A1, A2, and A3 stood out as the least efficient ones. The paper provides clear scientific contributions that are reflected in the reduction of the gap that was observed after reviewing the literature where there is a lack of papers dealing with this task. Also, the combination of methods applied in the paper has not been used so far, so it can be said that this paper represents an excellent basis for further research. The model has practical contributions as it allows decision-makers to make quality decisions regarding the operation of their warehouses in different time periods or observation periods, as well as it represents a decision support tool that can be used for better warehouse management.