Time-space Network-based Optimization For Order Consolidation And Distribution Problem In Online Supermarkets

Since entering into the public's field of vision,the e-commerce online retailing business has been preferred by the public for its convenience and timeliness.The convenience of online payment and the rapid development of B2C e-commerce has made online shopping a daily behavior of the current society.Compared with ordinary online retailing,orders from large scale online supermarkets show several notable features,including large daily orders(up to 60.000 orders per day in large cities),and a high level of each product type and item.There are millions of types of goods sold in online supermarkets,and multiple warehouses need to be configured for storage.This leads to online supermarket orders often need to be split into multiple parcels and delivered lots of times,thus causing extremely high disturbance to customers,waste of packaging and pollution to the environment.How to consolidate sub-order packages which been split into different warehouses and distribute to customers has become a key in improving customer's satisfaction.According to the characteristics of large online supermarket orders,the online supermarket order consolidation and distribution problems and the time-space network problems are studied and analyzed.The order consolidation strategy based on the sorting center is proposed to study the online supermarket order consolidation optimization method.Firstly,this paper analyzes the research and status quo of online supermarket order consolidation and time-space network problems at home and abroad,and combines the research background to give the significance,content and technical route of this paper.Secondly,this paper describes and analyses the online supermarket order consolidation and distribution problems,a game model among stakeholders in order consolidation distribution is established,and analyses the complexity of order consolidation distribution.It uses time-space network technology to describe the dynamic process of consolidation and distribution of order sorting centers in large online supermarkets.An order consolidation distribution optimization model based on time-space network is established.Considering the advantage of fast convergence rate of ant colony algorithm in later stage.an improved ant colony algorithm is designed to solve the consolidation distribution problem of online supermarket order sorting center.Finally.an example is given to validate the order consolidation optimization model and algorithm based on time-space network.The results show the feasibility and validity of the model and the ant colony algorithm.Considering the characteristics of order consolidation and optimal dispatch of distribution system,this paper integrates the idea of time-space network,and provides a new method for order consolidation optimization of large online supermarkets.This paper enriches the theory and method of space-time network and order consolidating,and further expands the research scope of order consolidating optimization methods.In practical application,the theoretical results of this study can be used to guide the consolidation and distribution process of orders in large online supermarkets.It is helpful for e-commerce enterprises to achieve the comprehensive improvement of efficiency and customer service level,to reduce the cost of logistics distribution,and to improve the efficiency of order fulfillment.