Warehouse location selection decision systems for medical sector

Abstract

Warehousing as well known, one of the most important parts of logistics. Today, the efficient and safe operation of storage activities are vital for companies. For this reason, companies have to pay attention to many factors when they are going to construct a warehouse. The most important factors are the structure of land, service availability, the geographical location, distance to customs or ports, climate, natural disaster risk, the social structure of the environment, distance to service markets, infrastructure availability (electricity, gas, natural gas), distance to hospitals and pharmacies. The goal of the paper is to evaluate the factors affecting the decision-making process of location selection of a warehouse for medical materials and services. As part of special material handling, medical goods need to be handled much more carefully. That is why, as far as the medical issues concerned additional criteria might be taken into consideration by the decision-makers. The priorities and alternatives will be discussed and ranked in the following part of this research. Besides, basic and supplementary criteria and their interrelation are determined by Pythagorean fuzzy set (PFS) based DEMATEL technique in order to be a guide for the medical executives.