Integrated Optimization Of Inventory And Transportation In VMI&TPL

With the increasingly intensified competition in the emerging global economy and the development of supply chain management theory, vendor-managed inventory (VMI) is concerned more and more by enterprises and scholars. According to the theory research and application, VMI can always bring benefits to down-stream enterprises. But for vendors, the effect of VMI can't be ensured due to the constraint of logistic capability. By integrating VMI with third-party logistics (TPL), the superiority of both vendors and TPL can be realized which should improve the supply chain logistics service level. Therefore, this dissertation is aimed to research the integrated optimization of inventory and transportation in VMI&TPL, which is based on analyzing the integrated supply chain of VMI and TPL.Firstly, researching status of VMI and TPL is expounded and integrated supply chain of VMI and TPL is analyzed. Based on analyzing the driving forces of integrating VMI with TPL, two kinds of integrated models, which are decentralized coordinating and centralized controlling supply chain, are proposed and analyzed comparatively. At the same time, the influence of integrated extent on benefits of VMI&TPL supply chain is analyzed in detail. As it turned out, integrated extent of VMI and TPL has no absolute influence on the benefits of supply chain and TPL. However, it has positive influence on the benefits of vendors and retailers.Secondly, the connotation of integrating inventory with transportation is proposed from systemic perspective. The integrated course and the key questions to be resolved in the course are discussed. Strategy decision problem, the first of the key questions, is also researched. The strategy decision models of integrating inventory with transportation under decentralized coordinating and centralized controlling situation are built separately. The influence of integrated extent on strategy decision is analyzed comparatively. The conclusion indicates that integrated extent has positive impact on strategy decision.Thirdly, the vendor's replenishment-decision model under decentralized coordinating VMI&TPL supply chain is built. The model considers supply chain logistics network which contains many vendors, single TPL and single manufacturer. Information sharing mechanism in supply chain managent and freight constract between vendors and TPL are inducted into the model. According to the models characters, correspondent simulated annealing and genetic algorithm is designed, which is proved to be effective by comparative analysis with basic genetic algorithm.At last, the optimization model of integrating inventory with transportation under centralized controlling VMI&TPL supply chain is built, which considers the same network as the model under decentralized coordinating VMI&TPL supply chain. Because of strongly computational complexity of the problem, the dissertation proves it to be a NPC problem and proposes a heuristic algorithm to solve it which is based on Lingo9.0 and simulated annealing and genetic algorithm.