Research On Configuration Of Logistics Resources And Benefits Distribution Of Fourth Party Logistics Based On Nonprofit Operation Mode

As an advanced management method and technology,logistics is considered as a source of profits besides reducing consumption of raw materials and improving labor capacity. Logistics plays an important role in the development of national economy. As a new mode of supply chain management, fourth party logistics(4PL) has a strong capability to integrate resources and to optimize the entire supply chain. This paper will research on key operation issues of fourth party logistics based on nonprofit operation mode.The concept of fourth party logistics and its advantages compared with third party logistics are summarized. Based on the theory of forth party logistics, fourth party logistics based on nonprofit operation mode is analyzed. Two operation modes and the requirements of fourth party logistics are yielded.The configuration of logistics resources which matches logistics assignments with resources of third party logistics providers is one of the essential issues of fourth party logistics based on nonprofit operation mode. As every third party logistics providers have its core competition such as collecting, transporting or warehousing, the costs must be reduce by assigning logistics tasks to the most suitable third party logistics provider. The complex logistics tasks are divided into several individual logistics activities and the logistics resources of third party providers are divided into resources nodes. Considering the total cost and completion time of logistics including the cost and time of logistics activities between two adjacent resource nodes and the time window constraints of every resource node,a model of logistics resources configuration aiming at minimizing total operation costs and completion time of total logistics tasks is proposed and genetic algorithm is designed to solve the model. The validity of proposed model and algorithm are verified by a corresponding case study.Due to optimizing the configuration of logistics resources, logistics efficiency is improved obviously,costs is reduced and benefits is increased. How to distribute the benefits is the key to the existence of fourth party logistics based on nonprofit operation mode. A Nash equilibrium model of fourth party logistics based on nonprofit operation mode is proposed and the game theory is adopted to analyze the distribution relationship among third party logistics. A utility function is constructed to distribute the benefits among all third party logistics providers. The distribution factors based on the strength and scale of 3PL,the contribution to benefits and the risk undertaken are gotten by using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Finally an example of Wuhan logistics market is taken to prove the validity of the proposed model.At last, a summary is given and the future research directions are outlined.