Application of Fuzzy Delphi TOPSIS to Locate Logistics Centers in Vietnam: The Logisticians' Perspective

Logistics centers have emerged as an important logistics infrastructure in supply chains. Hence, the problem of locating logistics centers plays a crucial role in designing and practicing logistics and supply chain management. Acknowledging the significance of logistics centers, Vietnam approved a master plan for the development of a logistics center system. However, the plan has been difficult to implementation because of the lack of the prioritization of the determinants used to locate logistics centers. This study aims to develop a benchmarking framework for choosing the locations of logistics centers based on the findings of logisticians by applying a hybrid of the fuzzy method and the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), both of which are utilized extensively to overcome problems in selecting locations. The results indicate that freight demand, closeness to market, production area, customers, and transportation costs are regarded as the most important factors in deciding the location of logistics centers. In addition, among the three locations considered, the northeast provinces of Ho Chi Minh City were the best location for logistic centers, followed by North Hanoi and Da Nang city. The findings of this study make a significant contribution to both academic and practical aspects of locating logistic centers.