Using Ordinal Priority Approach With Confidence-Level Measurement for Third-Party Logistics Provider Selection in the Tunisian Healthcare Sector

Abstract

This study aims to present a comprehensive decision methodology for selecting a 3PL provider in the healthcare sector that assists the decision-makers in taking the most appropriate decision for selecting and evaluating the 3PL provider. The ordinal priority approach (OPA) method is used to solve this problem and estimate the weights of the experts, criteria, and 3PL providers. The authors apply the OPA method with Kendall's coefficient of concordance (W) and confidence level measurement to estimate the agreement degree or concordant degree among experts, criteria, and alternatives. The authors developed a probabilistic method of 3PL provider selection under imperfect information by employing a novel confidence level measure, guided by the philosophy of statistics and the ordinal priority approach (OPA). The authors evaluated and selected the suitable 3PL provider problem in a Tunisian hospital by using the OPA method. They considered the case of pharmaceutical products.