Optimisation of collaborative supply transportation based on traffic road network topology

Abstract

With the rapid development of China's economy, enterprises need to plan their logistics transportation routes reasonably in advance. This will make the transportation service more efficient. For the supplier's transportation service problem, an analysis method of critical path nodes is provided and a multi‐supplier collaborative transportation strategy is designed in this article. First, a model for minimising the transportation cost was established, then a path diagram was simulated and the optimal and alternative transportation paths of suppliers based on the k‐shortest path algorithm were calculated. In addition, path node availability during COVID‐19 is used as a research context in this article. A multi‐stage path analysis method was provided by discussing different cases of critical path nodes, which can make a reasonable selection of paths in a timely and effective manner. Finally, simulations of collaborative transportation for suppliers were performed in three scenarios and the results verified the effectiveness of the collaborative transportation strategy. The proposed collaborative transportation strategy of suppliers not only strengthened the synergistic cooperation among suppliers, but also cultivated the potential customer for suppliers in this article. Furthermore, the strategy could improve the flexibility of the supply chain, maximise the overall efficiency and also provide a new solution for the development of logistics and transportation services.