The pre-positioning of humanitarian aid: the warehouse location problem

Roh, Saeyeon ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1985-3754 2012. The pre-positioning of humanitarian aid: the warehouse location problem. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

The overarching objective of this thesis is to explore the warehouse location decision problem by considering regional and specific site attributes in the unique context of humanitarian relief organisation. This is to fill the gaps the revealed in the current understanding of location decision problem, particularly the lack of studies attempting to investigate humanitarian pre-positioned location decision problem with qualitative attributes opposed to the many previous studies focused on computerised optimisation model absence of the human judgements. Specifically, this research develops into case studies of the international humanitarian organisations selecting the warehouse attributes and locating the alternative warehouse locations. International humanitarian relief organisation aiding the refugees participated in the case study of the regional location selection problem for pre-positioned warehouse with five major attributes and 25 sub-attributes. Six international humanitarian relief organisations based in Dubai, UAE participated for specific warehouse location selection problem with five major attributes and 30 sub-attributes. The overall research design adopted in this thesis is as follows. First, the coherent humanitarian warehouse location decision attributes were developed in the basis of a literature and semi-structured interviews with practitioners whose organisation practice pre-positioned warehouse operation system. Secondly, two case studies were conducted for constructing the hierarchy structure for warehouse evaluation for regional and specific site location. In the first case study, 11 managerial level officers participated to construct the regional warehouse location decision attributes and evaluated the warehouse location for the organisation. In the second case study, panel members were form by 11 decision-makers from six different organisations constructed the hierarchical structure of the specific site warehouse location attributes for the evaluation. Thirdly, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is executed to acquire criteria weights and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is employed to obtain the final ranking of the warehouse locations. Fuzzy set theory is adopted in the evaluation to deal with the fuzziness of decision-makers‟ preferences in decision making. In conclusion, this thesis extends the body of knowledge in pre-positioned warehouse location problem in the humanitarian relief logistics context by suggesting a MADM location method, AHP and TOPSIS, integrated with fuzzy set theory to understand the priority preference of regional (macro) and specific site (micro) warehouse location attributes and the selection of the optimal warehouse.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	24 Oct 2022 10:37
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/45109

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