Sustainable Last-Mile Delivery Solution Evaluation in the Context of a Developing Country: A Novel OPA–Fuzzy MARCOS Approach

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Name of the paper: Sustainable Last-mile Solution Evaluation in the Context of a Developing Country: A Novel OPA–Fuzzy MARCOS Approach

The present paper provides a sustainable last-mile solution A novel hybrid multiple attribute decision-making (MADM) model combining Ordinal Priority Approach (OPA) and fuzzy Measurement Alternatives and Ranking according to the COmpromise Solution (fuzzy MARCOS), is employed to model 12 sustainability factors of technical, economic, social, and environmental aspects. The authors also illustrate the evaluation of five LMSs in Vietnam concerning their sustainable implementation. The research result provides a ranking of LMS-03 (convenience store pickup), LMS-02 (parcel lockers), and LMS-01 (green vehicles).

 Comments:

1)      Please refer to Table 1. Review of initiatives, solutions, and technologies of last-mile logistics. The symbol “v” may be explained below the table.

2)      Please refer to lines 176-178” Five solutions (green vehicles, parcel lockers, convenience store pickup, autonomous vehicles, and crowdsourcing delivery). How the five alternative solutions are determined may be explained.

3)      Authors may provide more detailed information about the experts.

4)      Please refer to lines 323-325: “Based…. expert 1 > expert 3 > expert 2 > expert 4.” Is unclear. How Experience, Academic degree, and the expert’s qualification” are aggregated for deciding the rank.

5)      How ration of Cost (-)/ Benefit (+) is accounted for is unclear.

6)      How the aggregation of the linguistic judgment matrix of ALL EXPERTS for fuzzy MARCOS is carried out is unclear.

 

7)      Authors may also provide individual assessments of all experts and their aggregation in the Appendix.

1)      Please refer to the abstract: "....are topmost criteria...."' should be ".....are the topmost criteria... "

2)      Please refer to line 61: "In the regard that last-mile logistics ..." may be modified as "In the light of the fact that last-mile logistics..." for better clarity

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper titled "Sustainable Last-mile Solution Evaluation in the Context of a Developing Country: A  Novel OPA–Fuzzy MARCOS Approach" addresses a pertinent issue related to improving last-mile logistics in developing economies, particularly within the context of Vietnam. The research introduces a novel hybrid multiple attribute decision-making (MADM) model that combines the Ordinal Priority Approach (OPA) and fuzzy Measurement Alternatives and Ranking according to the COmpromise Solution (fuzzy MARCOS) to evaluate and rank potentially sustainable last-mile solutions. The study's strength lies in its interesting and well-designed approach to tackling an important problem in logistics and supply chain management.

Strengths:

1. Interesting Topic and Content: The paper addresses a timely and relevant issue regarding last-mile logistics in developing countries, with a focus on the unique challenges faced by Vietnam.

2. Innovative Approach: The proposed hybrid OPA–fuzzy MARCOS model presents an innovative way to evaluate and rank sustainable last-mile solutions, providing a valuable contribution to the field of decision-making and logistics optimization.

3. Well-Designed Research: The study demonstrates a structured and systematic methodology, involving the determination of sustainability factors and the application of the proposed MADM model to a case study.

Weaknesses:

1. Language and Clarity: The manuscript would benefit from thorough language editing by a native speaker to ensure clarity and readability, as certain passages appear unclear or confusing.

2. Novelty and Contribution: The article lacks a clear delineation of its novelty and contribution, especially in comparison to existing literature. A more distinct exposition of the advantages and limitations of the proposed approach is necessary.

3. Future Research and Conclusions: The conclusions section should be expanded to include directions for future research, providing readers with insights into potential extensions or applications of the proposed model.

4. Literature Review: The literature review requires significant expansion to provide a comprehensive overview of similar works, especially those employing hybrid MADM techniques or addressing last-mile logistics in other contexts.

5. Comparative Analysis: To bolster the credibility of the proposed approach, a comparative analysis with other established methods, such as SPOTIS, COMET, SIMUS, or TOPSI-DARIA, should be conducted and discussed.

6. Rankings Similarity and Expertise: The article should assess the similarity of rankings using appropriate coefficients (e.g., rw and WS), and there should be clearer documentation of the experts involved in decision matrix development.

7. Figures and References: The quality of figures could be improved for better visualization, and the article lacks an in-depth discussion of the referenced work by Toslak et al. (2023), which is relevant to the proposed methodology (https://doi.org/10.3233/KES-230044).

 

In conclusion, the article possesses a strong foundation and potential contribution to the field of sustainable last-mile logistics in developing economies. Addressing the identified weaknesses and incorporating the suggested extensions will significantly enhance the clarity, originality, and overall impact of the research. I suggest a major revision

none

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

The article titled "Sustainable Last-mile Solution Evaluation in the Context of a Developing Country: A Novel OPA–Fuzzy MARCOS Approach" presents a well-defined hybrid approach for decision making. In this paper, to evaluate and rank these potentially sustainable last-mile solutions (LMSs), the authors proposed a novel hybrid multiple attribute decision-making (MADM) model that combines the Ordinal Priority Approach (OPA) and fuzzy Measurement Alternatives and Ranking according to the COmpromise Solution (fuzzy MARCOS). They considered factors from different fields making the analysis interesting and highly relevant. The example(case study) is very well-explained and the comparative analysis is concise and comprehensive. Superiority of proposed method with, Comparison with OPA and Fuzzy TOPSIS, OPA and fuzzy WASPAS, OPA and fuzzy COCOSO, OPA and fuzzy SAW, OPA and fuzzy MABAC, OPA and Fuzzy COPRAS and OPA and fuzzy MARCOS,  is depicted in the form of a bar diagram. All sections are well constructed and discussed.

 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

Please open the attached file

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank you for carrying out the revisions. The following comments should also be taken into consideration:

(a) Please refer to lines 238–239; some of the variables are not in italics, unlike equations (1) and (2).

 (b) Please refer to line no. 279: Check equations (13) and (14) for their correctness and also match the variables' definitions in line 280.

(c) Please refer to the date for the online resources visited as: "accessed on 21 June 2022)." looks old, and may be modified by verifying the provided link to recent dates.

 

(d) The paper title of reference no. 70 may be modified to make it uniform with the rest.

(a) Please refer to line 269: ALL EXPERTS should be all experts

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper has been improved and can be accepted in its current form.

None

Author Response

Thank you for the acceptance of the paper