Group decision support for analysing logistics development projects

Defining action plans is an important part of logistics strategic management. The selection of logistics development projects to be included in the action plans is usually a group effort, and a well-known decision methodology, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), is an effective tool for group decision making. We propose the following AHP-based approach to analysing potential development projects to be included in a logistics action plan: (1) identify the potential projects, (2) analyse the contribution of each project to the achievement of the corporate and logistics long-term objectives using AHP, (3) analyse the prospects of successful implementation of each project using the AHP, and (4) select the projects to be included in the logistics development plan based on the contribution, the implementation prospects and the project cost using mixed integer programming. The approach is demonstrated with an illustrative numerical example