Selection of Logistics Service Provider for port enterprises: Combination of the weighting-grey synthetic decision-making method

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore how port enterprises can scientifically select a better logistic service provider (LSP) to achieve a high efficiency. An empirical study is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the combination weighting-grey synthetic decision-making method by helping the LSP selection of a port enterprise in China. Data are collected from questionnaires administered to port logistics’ industry professionals. The method is proposed, which associates the analysis network process method with the entropy method to determine the combined weights of the evaluation indexes. The improved centre-point triangular whitenization weight function is introduced to cluster the alternative port LSPs and judge the corresponding grey classes. Subsequently, the synthetic weighted decision-making vectors are used to determine the grey synthetic decision-making coefficient vectors. The grey synthetic clustering decision-making coefficients are calculated to establish a synthetic decision-making rank of the alternative plans. The combined method can help the port enterprises realize the selection of better LSPs in a scientific manner.