Study On The Method For Selecting Third-party Logistics Service Provider Considering Multi-department And Different Evaluation Index Sets

With the development of the third-party logistics service industry, more and more enterprises outsource their logistics to the third-party logistics service providers (3PLs). It is a very important step to selecting a 3PLs for logistics outsourcing in an enterprise. The improper selection will lead that the enterprise not only can’t realize the advantages of logistics outsourcing, but also take more risks.In most previous studies on selecting 3PLs, all experts score alternative 3PLs considering the same evaluation index set. However, many articles mentioned that more than one department will participate in when enterprises select the 3PLs. What’s more, many logistics outsourcing examples in reality show that the evaluation index set for different department is different, because each department has their own familiar or concerned fields. With the development of soft set theory, multi-person decision-making problem has drawn some scholars’ attention. However few scholars studied on the method for selecting 3PLs considering multi-department and different evaluation index set (hereafter referred to as multi-department decision-making). Therefore, it is significant in theory and practice to study on the method for selecting 3PLs considering multi-department and different evaluation index set.This paper studies the method for selecting 3PLs considering multi-department and different evaluation index sets, and mainly finishes the following three works:(1) The evaluation index system for selecting 3PLs considering multi-department decision-making is constructed. By summing up and analyzing the evaluation index and involved department in previous literature, make a preliminary evaluation index list and identify the indexs which are considered by each department. Then, screen the indexs under the index categories concerned by each department using the espert investigation method with questionnaires. Consequently, establish a new evaluation index system for selecting 3PLs considering multi-department decision-making.(2) A method for selecting 3PLs considering multi-department decision-making is proposed. First, propose the acquiring and processing methods to transform different forms of index parameter weight and evalution information to intuitionistic fuzzy numbers. Second, construct intuitionistic fuzzy soft sets based on the evaluation information from each department expert. Then, use the "AND" operator to get a new intuitionistic fuzzy soft set that contains all department experts’s evaluation information and weight it to get a weighted intuitionistc fuzzy soft set. Finally, prioritize optional 3PLs by usin the TOPSIS method so as to select the 3PLs ranked first as the partners of the enterprise.(3) A potential application about 3PLs selection is given. In this paper, with the background of 3PLs selection in company A, study the application in practice of the method for selecting 3PLs considering multi-department and different evaluation index sets. And the result is compared with the result by the traditional TOPSIS method so as to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.The method for selecting 3PLs considering multi-department and different evaluation index sets proposed in this paper provide a way to select 3PLs in reality. It can help enterprises choose a proper logistics partner. In addition, this study considering multi-department decision-making and different index sets enriches and improves the study on the method for selecting 3PLs, and also provides some ideas and methods for related research on scheme selection.