Abstract
Nowadays, the demand of third-party logistics provider becomes an increasingly important issue for companies to improve their customer service and to decrease logistics costs. This paper presents an integrated fuzzy approach for the evaluation and selection of 3rd party logistics service providers. This method consists of two techniques: (1) use fuzzy analytic hierarchy process to identify weights of evaluation criteria; (2) apply fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method to evaluate and sequence alternatives and to make the final selection. Finally, an actual industrial application is performed in logistics department of a tire manufacturing company. For this, first, eight logistics supplier selection criteria were determined, and then the best alternative among seven logistics service provider companies was selected by the proposed method.
Highlights
Logistics plays an important role in integrating the supply chain of industries
Many companies are searching to outsource their logistics operations to what they call as Third Party Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) to introduce products and service innovations quickly to their markets [2]
In 2003, the International Warehouse Logistics Association, which comprises more than 550 logistics companies of North America, identified third-party LSP selection criteria as follows: price, reliability, service quality, on-time performance, cost reduction, flexibility and innovation, good communication, management quality, location, customize service, speed of service, order cycle time, easy to work with, customer support, vendor reputation, technical competence, special expertise, systems capabilities, variety of available services, decreased labor problems, personal relationships, decreased asset commitment, and early notification of disruptions [33]
Summary
Logistics plays an important role in integrating the supply chain of industries. Because the market becomes more global, logistics is seen as an important area where industries can decrease costs and improve their customer service quality [1]. There is an increasing trend that manufacturing companies outsource their logistics activities to meet their increasing need for logistics services This trend has increased importance of the concept of third party LSPs [3]. Because of development of supply chain partnerships, cost reduction, restructuring of the company, success of the firms using contract logistics, globalization, improvement of services, and efficient operations, companies need to outsource their logistics activities to 3PL service providers [6]. The LSP selection is a complex multicriteria decision making (MCDM) problem that includes both quantitative and qualitative criteria some of which can conflict each other and is vital in enhancing the competitiveness of companies [8] It is an important function of the logistics departments as it brings significant savings for the organization.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
