Evaluating Pallet Investment Strategy Using Fuzzy Analytic Network Process: A Case in Chinese Chain Supermarkets

Abstract

Presently in Chinese chain supermarkets, many enterprises have built automatic equipment and information facilities in the logistics center of their supply chain systems. Modern logistics technology and equipment largely depend on the resource integration of each role in the chain (such as suppliers, manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers), especially logistics facilities and equipment resources, to realize the circulation of products. The pallet, which is an indispensable basic tool for a supply chain system in the process of product circulation, is most often used in the handling, stacking, storage, and transportation of products. The process of building automation and informationization in the supply chain system of Chinese supermarket chains requires the solving of the problems of cost and sharing pallets in logistics operations. Large-scale enterprises often spend millions of dollars on investment, the failure of which can cause significant harm to the enterprise. Therefore, the authors of this paper adopted the fuzzy analytic network process (FANP), combining fuzzy and ANP models to evaluate our studied case. We utilized an actual case as the research object to resolve the important decisions regarding pallet resource sharing investment in the supply chain system. Importantly, it is expected that the proposed method can provide an important reference standard or a new idea for decision makers in the chain supermarket industry or related industries.

An Integrated Fuzzy MCDM Method for Assessing Crisis Recovery Strategies in the Supply Chain

“…Further investigation could examine recovery strategies concentrating on the agri-food industry in the Middle East and North Africa area of the global supply chain. Future work may involve sensitivity analysis to dynamically assess risk management and emergency response strategies during COVID-19, encompassing pre-event prevention, midevent response, and post-event recovery and reconstruction phases, involving various risks and stakeholders [51]. Additional research could examine crises, areas of improvement, recovery strategies, or recovery decisions different from those mentioned in the study.…”

An Evaluation System for COVID-19 Vaccine Transportation Quality Based on Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process

“…Real-life decision-making activities involve selection, evaluation, and review, and a multi-criteria decision-making approach aims to help decision makers effectively evaluate and prioritize the advantages and disadvantages of various options from a wide range of evaluative attributes [38]. As a result, theoretical approaches have been successfully and widely applied to solve various problems in managerial decision making [36].…”

“…Despite the fact that the AHP is widely used, it cannot adequately address the concepts of thinking, semantic expressions, and sensory judgments of experts or decision makers in the decision-making process with uncertainty and imprecision. In the AHP formula, human judgments are represented as accurate numbers [38]. Thus, the modal FAHP is a theory that has been developed to address the imprecision that arises when experts assess the relative importance of guidelines and alternatives.…”

“…Inaccuracies can be caused by a variety of reasons, such as unquantifiable information, incomplete information, unavailable information, and part of the message being unknown. The traditional AHP method cannot effectively manage this type of imprecise information problem [38]. In light of this, this paper used the FAHP method to evaluate the decision-making options and provide decision makers with a better value measurement using the concept of interval scale, which can help them to decide the best options for different attributes.…”

“…. , n. This study applied the concept by Lin et al [38] to reach consensus among experts and analyze the data to build a decision-making model. The process of applying the FAHP consists of the following five main steps.…”