Research On Vendor-managed Inventory Based On Third-party Logistics

In the furious market environment, the spirit of competition is no longer between the companies but the supply chains. In the supply chain, more and more advantages are taken by the buyers. The non-core businesses are outsourced, and it makes the vendor-managed inventory (VMI) popular in the reality. When implementing the VMI policy, the buyers capture the real end customer needs, but are put on more burdens. So, in order to mitigate the burdens, the buyers are seeking the right third party logistics provider for the logistics operations in the VMI.Firstly, the thesis summarizes the researches of VMI and third party logistics, finds the defects of current researches and proposes the important issues needed to pay more attention. It is that the feasibility of integration VMI and TPL and the effects of logistics outsourcing in VMI on the supply chain. On these bases, the reasons why VMI is so popular and the difficulties which the buyers faced are analyzed. Secondly, the thesis extends the VMI System Dynamic model which proposed by Towill et al to the environment of one supplier and two distributors, builds the VMI-APIOBPCSII model. Then third party logistics is introduced in the VMI supply chain, and the VMI-TPL-APIOBPCS model is designed. The effects on the VMI after introducing third party logistics are analyzed from the bullwhip effect, production rate, inventory items, and customer services. Sensitive analysis is done for the important parameters in VMI-TPL-APIOBPCS model. At last, according to the simulation results and analytic conclusions, some useful proposals are put forward to the buyers and third party logistics providers when cooperating in VMI.