Application of Fuzzy Dematel Method to Allocate Logistics Centers Based on Industry 4 and Center Capabilities: The Logisticians’ Perspective

This article aims to identify and allocate logistics activities, determine the relationships between them, and investigate the capabilities of the desired region for establishing logistics centers. The research method is descriptive-applied, and data collection is field-based, the statistical population consists of three groups: the first group comprises logistics and supply chain experts who provided their scientific opinions on selecting processes and activities required for a logistics center, also applied the selection of the fourth-generation industry agents, the second group consists of managers and decision-makers in logistics centers who determined the operational relationships of logistics processes based on their experience in involved organizations. The third group includes managers and experts from logistics centers in Iran who determined the operational activities for the real environment and used them to test the measurement model. Through specialized interviews with experts, logistics processes and activities were identified and classified into four processes, and the necessary activities were determined for each process. The DEMATEL method was employed to determine the relationships between activities. The Fourth-generation industry agents for the identified activities were determined based on expert opinions. The compatibility rate method was used to determine the level of each fourth-generation activity for logistics processes. The compatibility rate results indicated that logistics processes and fourth-generation agents are at level 2, indicating a considerable gap in reaching maturity and implementation of the fourth-generation industry. The transportation process showed the lowest growth rate, while the information management process exhibited the highest growth rate in the maturity model.