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

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.

Two-echelon fresh product supply chain with different transportation modes

“…This paper is closely related to Lin et al ( 2020 ), Shui et al ( 2021 ) and Yan et al ( 2020b ), which discussed the decision-making of supply chain under different transportation modes. However, Lin et al ( 2020 ) and Shui et al ( 2021 ) only considered the quality loss of products in the transportation process, did not consider the quantity loss in the transportation process, nor consider the value loss in the storage process, let alone the coordination of the supply chain. Moreover, Lin et al ( 2020 ) focused on the impact of the retailer's inspection strategy at the end of transportation on the distributor's transportation modes decision-making.…”

“…As far as we know, only Lin et al ( 2020 ) discussed the decision of two transportation modes for vaccines, and concerned about the impact of the two inspection methods of the retailer on the decision of the distributor at the end of transportation. Shui et al ( 2021 ) analyzed the balance between insulation packaging cost and shipping cost when choosing nonrefrigerated vehicles or refrigerated vehicles under the community group purchase model.…”

“…Moreover, Lin et al ( 2020 ) focused on the impact of the retailer's inspection strategy at the end of transportation on the distributor's transportation modes decision-making. Shui et al ( 2021 ) designed a heuristic algorithm to solve the decision-making of transportation modes. In this paper, Stackelberg game is used to study the decision-making of supply chain with different transportation modes under different contracts.…”