หน้าที่ 5 weighing the importance of criteria. Kim and Lee (2010) used AHP to
solve the problem of selecting a third party logistics company by
quantifying qualitative data, and Park et al. (2012) assessed the efficiency
of container ports using a combined method of the Entropy and DEA. Kim
and Kim (2012) determined a priority in work recovery in the emergency
recovery process of a port information system, and Kim and Na (2011) found a
solution to selecting a supplier considering such factors as quality, price, and
delivery. Lee et al. (2013) used the Entropy-TOPSIS technique in evaluating the
criteria for selecting transport routes and ranked them based on their
competitiveness. Liu and Qiu (2010), Akyene (2012), and Shahroudi (2012)
used TOPSIS for making decisions on distribution and procurement.
The MCDM has been used in making decisions on various problems in
logistics industry including the selection of a supplier, a location, and a
transport route, etc. However, few studies on transport routes have been
made compared to those on other logistics areas.
Therefore, this study can be distinguished from others by 1) taking
account of both the quantitative factors such as cost and time and the
qualitative factors such as service and awareness, 2) reflecting the
uncertainty of the decision makers’ subjective judgment by applying the
triangular fuzzy numbers to the TOPSIS technique, and 3) reviewing the
new Arctic route and the TKR railway transport by analyzing
characteristics (the weakness and strength) of each factor. Based upon the
results, the competitiveness of the Suez and the Arctic route is visualized
by comparing with existing transport routes.
III. Analysis on Competitiveness of the International
Transport Routes with TOPSIS
1. Analyzing Factors
1) Selecting Factors
To analyze competitiveness of the routes in the international transport
network, we first select the major factors that affect the efficiency of a
transport route.
By considering studies on the factors for transportation and consulting experts
on trade, major factors were hierarchically classified as shown in .