Integrated Thermal Insulation Packing and Vehicle Routing for Perishable Products in Community Group Purchase

Wenbing Shui,Mengxia Li,Huimin Zhao,Tingsong Wang

doi:10.1155/2021/6673555

Wenbing Shui, Mengxia Li + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6673555

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Abstract

Two transportation modes have been used to solve the “last kilometer” delivery problem of perishable products in China. One mode involves the use of refrigerated vehicles, and the other involves transportation with nonrefrigerated vehicles but with thermal insulation packaging and phase-change refrigerants. In this paper, we studied the distribution of fresh products using nonrefrigerated vehicles under the community group purchase model. A new integrated model that can simultaneously select insulation packaging methods and vehicle paths was developed. We designed a heuristic algorithm based on genetic algorithm to solve larger-scale problems. We found that nonrefrigerated vehicle delivery was better than refrigerated vehicle delivery when neither the cost of the phase-change refrigerant nor the cost of packaging accounts for more than 50% of the total cost. There was an optimal balance between insulation packaging cost and shipping cost. The combination of thin and light packaging materials and high-efficiency cold storage materials could achieve the goals of ensuring the quality of fresh products and reducing transportation costs simultaneously.

Highlights

As a new mode of social e-commerce, community group purchases are developing rapidly with the help of social software and other social traffic portals
One mode involves the use of refrigerated vehicles to transport fresh agricultural products, and the other involves transportation with conventional nonrefrigerated vehicles but with thermal insulation packaging and phase-change refrigerants. ere are high operating costs for the use of refrigerated vehicles
Nonrefrigerated vehicles can cost less than refrigerated vehicles, and logistics companies have more choices in selecting different vehicle types. is allows greater flexibility in delivery, for example, the mixing of perishable products with other categories. erefore, this transportation model is more appropriate than the refrigerated vehicle mode for filling the various and small product orders demanded by individual consumers

Summary

Introduction

As a new mode of social e-commerce, community group purchases are developing rapidly with the help of social software and other social traffic portals. One mode involves the use of refrigerated vehicles to transport fresh agricultural products, and the other involves transportation with conventional nonrefrigerated vehicles but with thermal insulation packaging and phase-change refrigerants. Is work studied the distribution of fresh agricultural products from a new perspective It integrated the multitype thermal insulation packaging selection problem of nonrefrigerated vehicles into the vehicle routing problem (VRP). Another main contribution was that this paper designed a heuristic algorithm that can quickly solve large-scale problems. On the basis of the above research, this paper analyzed the benefits of this nonrefrigerated vehicle mode but with thermal insulation packaging and phase-change refrigerants. We summarize the major conclusions of our study and provide several suggestions for further research

Related Works

Materials and Methods

Results and Discussion

Parameter Settings and Base Instance Generation