Abstract
Different from the previous articles on multi-echelon cold chain system, in addition to traditional transportation/distribution, warehousing and inventory control, DC value-added services, such as joint order processing, product processing and customizing, picking and assorting, joint distribution, etc. are employed to improve the performance of the cold chain system. Case study and sensitivity analysis demonstrate that (1) DC revenue is mainly from processing and customizing service for all kinds of products; (2) Of the value added services, picking and assorting cost has a significant effect on the total profit. These conclusions present good theoretical and managerial insights.
Highlights
It is documented that global food losses have been on the order of 25% to 50% of production volumes, caloric content and/or market values depending on the commodity (Gustavsson et al, 2011)
In order to keep quality and consuming safety required by end customers and reduce relative logistics cost, especially the deterioration cost, an integrated inventory policy needs to be emphasized among all members in the cold chain
This paper proposes an three-echelon cold chain system
Summary
It is documented that global food losses have been on the order of 25% to 50% of production volumes, caloric content and/or market values depending on the commodity (Gustavsson et al, 2011). In China, except for exports, most of the cold chain inventory and logistics distribution are completed by producers and distributors, such as milk, meat, sea products, fresh fruits and vegetables and so on. Distribution center (DC) as a third-party logistics, it can efficiently links the producers and retailers, and provide some value-added services. Value added services generally extend the basic services to an integrated service or broader logistics functions, such as joint order processing, product processing and customizing, picking and assorting, joint distribution, program settlement, consulting, strategic alliance, customer service, etc. Over the past two decades, most of the cold chain inventory models are devoted to two-echelon decisions, such as, Yang & Wee (2000), Das et al (2013), Rahdar and Nookabadi (2014), Ghiami & Williams (2015), Chan et al (2017), Mohammadi et al (2019), etc.
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