The Research Of Optimizing Second-level Distribution Center Layout Of Express Enterprise

With the acceleration of urban economy and electronic commerce in China,the volume,scale and type of on-line shopping are increasing which has brought great business opportunities to the express industry.As an emerging industry,express industry has been developing rapidly.Rising demand of customers for service and increasingly fierce competition environment have forced express enterprise to improve the service network and operation mode.The delivery network which consists of a certain number of net points,distribution centers with different level and transportation routes is the material base for express enterprises to conduct business.And among them,as the connection of first-level distribution center and net points,the number and layout of second-level distribution center have direct effect on the overall cost and service level of express enterprise.In addition,downstream express distribution,as the final part of the courier service,faces directly to the end customer.Thus enhancing the efficiency of express distribution is also a key mean to improve the service level in order to win more market share.This paper makes an in-depth study of the layout and optimization of second-level distribution center of express enterprise.Firstly,research framework and solution route of this paper are established on the premise of clear prospect of express industry,overseas and domestic research status.Next,related theory knowledge of express enterprise operation mode and network layout are introduced in details.Then the paper constructs a distribution model of vehicle routing problem with time windows,which aimed at achieving the goals of the minimum total cost and also considering the delivery time.Then two-stage heuristic algorithm is applied.Moreover,the paper develops an optimization model which takes minimizing the total cost of second-level distribution center layout of express enterprises as the objective function and chooses SCE-UA algorithm as the solving algorithm of this model.Finally,the feasibility of the model is verified through making analysis of the results of the case study.Hope that the summary and outlook of this research at last can provide guidance for the decision makers of express enterprise.