EVALUATION OF DISTRIBUTION CENTER LOCATION BY FMCGDM BASED ON EXTENDED FUZZY PREFERENCE RELATION

Evaluation of distribution center location, under uncertain environment belonging to fuzzy multi-criteria group decision-making (FMCGDM) problems, is an essential element of global supply chain management. In order to take into imprecision and vagueness of decision-making, this study uses Lee's (2005a; 2005b) extended fuzzy preference relation to evaluate the problem of distribution center location in global supply chain management. In the location evaluation problem, all evaluation ratings and criteria weights, with the exception of investment cost evaluation ratings, are given linguistic values, and then transformed into trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. By Lee's (2005a; 2005b) extended fuzzy preference relation, preference degrees between the evaluation ratings of candidate locations and the ideal (or anti-ideal) solution for all criteria are first derived, and then the preference degrees are multiplied by their corresponding criteria weights into weighted preference degrees for all criteria for separate locations. The weighted preference degrees and their related locations are aggregated, and then converted into corresponding location evaluation indices. Finally, these locations are ranked according to their corresponding evaluation indices, and the best distribution center location is determined.