Study On The Selection Of Cold-Chain Outsourcing Service Providers For Food Companies

With Chinese people’s living standard getting better, people are paying more and more attention on the food safety, which speeds up the development of cold chain logistics. The cryogenic logistics, also called cold chain logistics, is based on frozen technology and refrigeration technology. Due to the feature that fresh food is perishable, in order to ensure the food quality and decrease the food waste, the food products should be kept in cryogenic environment. Every step of post-harvest and post-fishing should be closely connected from end to end by using proper equipment and unified management. The cold chain logistics highly requires the knowledge of the technology, the supply of the equipment and the skill for the operation, in order to save the expense, as well as enhance the competitive strength, most food manufacturer companies prefer to outsource their part or entire cold chain logistics to the-third-party logistics companies, which could provide professional cold chain service. There are a lot of third-party cold chain logistics service providers in the market; however, the quality of the service is quite different. The quality of the cold chain logistics service effects the quality of the company’s products and the customers’ satisfaction, which will further influence the development of the company and customers’ health issue. So, it is vital for a cold chain food company to choose the right logistics partner.The selection of the third-party logistics service provider is not a new topic; however, most of the current studies focus on the selection process in general. There is little specific research on the choice model for a certain industry. Considering the feature of fresh food, while choosing the cold chain logistics service provider, besides the price of the service and the management of the distribution channels, the manufacturer needs to take the quality of the product, the safety and the timing of service into consideration. Therefore, there is a need for a more effective evaluation system for the third-party logistics service provider, which could better fit cold food chain industry. Thus the food manufacturer could select the third-party cold chain logistics service effectively.This research starts from literature review, which analyzes the studies of outsourcing logistics service, the guide line for third-party logistics service provider selection, and the evaluation methods. The next part is the introduction of the theories of cold chain logistics and logistics outsourcing. By applying interview and survey, as well as integrating the feature of Chinese cold food chain and the special requirement for cold chain logistics, the study analyzes the procedure of the selection of the third-party logistics service provider, and then creates a guide line specifically for the selection of cold chain logistics service provider. In the third part, the study analyzes the strength and weakness of the methods used by domestic and international companies to choose and evaluate the third-party logistics service provider. Then the study proposes the AHP-TOPSIS method for selection and evaluation. In the last part, based on the case study of a domestic food manufacturer, the validity of the model is proved, which provides reference for domestic cold food chain companies in the selection of the logistics service provider.