Multi-objective Assessment of Warehouse Storage Policies in Logistics and a Fuzzy Information Axiom Approach

Abstract

Determining an appropriate storage policy is a critical issue in warehouse management. Storage policies address location assignment of stock keeping units (SKUs) in warehouses. An effective storage policy should not only provide the minimization of transportation and inventory costs, but also increase the level of service available to the internal and external customers. When selecting a storage policy, parameters cannot be frequently determined as crisp values. Fuzzy logic is utilized in many engineering applications so as to handle imprecise data. Moreover, information axiom, the second axiom of axiomatic design (AD), performs the selection of the alternative that mostly satisfies the functional requirements of decision makers. This chapter provides a fuzzy information axiom basis for storage policy selection. After providing background information about storage policies as well as storage assignment models, a fuzzy information axiom-oriented model is introduced. Then, the decision-making model is validated by an application in a company from automotive industry.