Real-time location systems selection by using a fuzzy MCDM approach: An application in humanitarian relief logistics

Abstract

The real-time location systems (RTLSs) with different positioning technologies allow real-time and high-precision localization of assets. Since the usage of RTLSs technologies and their population increase, RTLSs technology selection problem that addresses many factors should be considered. Therefore, it is important to determine the performance criteria and evaluation of these technologies should be investigated before RTLSs technology is applied to the system. This paper aims to select the most appropriate RTLSs technology by using a combined fuzzy based decision-making approach. Thus, the first paper for selection of RTLSs systems in a holistic approach by combining benefit and risk factors has been revealed. The developed approach is applied to humanitarian relief logistics warehouse with four alternatives which are given as Ultra-Wide Band, Wi-Fi, UHF RFID and Active RFID for the selection. The proposed approach has been integrated with interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy (IVIF) sets that allow to deal with fuzziness inherent in decision making processes. For this aim, firstly IVIF DEMATEL is used to determine the inner and outer dependencies of the sub and main criteria; secondly, weights of the sub-criteria are obtained by using IVIF ANP. Finally, the best RTLSs technology to be used in humanitarian logistics warehouse is selected by using IVIF TOPSIS. As a result of the calculations, the best system is determined as the Wi-Fi RTLS'' system based on the given context. By the way, a sensitivity analysis has been also implemented to test and validate the developed methodology. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.