Optimization Of Sorting Workforce Size Of Regional Sorting Center Considering The Fluctuation Of Express Orders

The rapid development of E-retailing (B2C, C2C) has led to a high-speed growth of the express delivery market in the recent years in China, and more than60%of the expresses in express delivery market are from online shopping. However, owing to the limitations of the industry norms and management level, the issue of delay in express delivery has become the biggest complaint of the online shopping consumers to the express delivery companies. In order to ensure the timely distribution of expresses and efficient utilization of logistics resources, the express delivery companies should firstly forecast its business volume accurately, according to the economic trend, the situation of e-commerce and express industry in different regions. And then they would allocate the logistics resources rationally based on the forecasting results, considering the corporate profitability and industry polices and standards.The main contents of this paper are as follows:(1) By studying on the current literatures and practical works about E-retailing logistics, the author summarized the current status and development trend of express delivery industry in China, as well as the characteristics of express logistics and operation processes of express distribution. By deeply researching on the issue of delay in express delivery especially on the peak time of online shopping, the author found that the explosive growth of expresses orders and shortage of working stuff are key reasons. Then two decision strategies were proposed for the express company according to the key reasons respectively, in order to deal with the delay in express delivery on the peak time of on-line shopping.(2) As for the regional express logistics system, the mechanism of the system was studied by using System Dynamics, based on the analysis of the system and its key factors. A simulation model of regional express logistics system under the e-commerce context was proposed with VENSIM, considering the regional economy, e-commerce industry, and the impact of logistics policies, which provides an approach to forecast the express logistics demand in a specific region, and then the validity of the model was verified.(3) In line with the decision strategies, a model to determine the workforce size and express freight in a specific region was proposed considering two aspects, one is the economical losses callused by the delay in express delivery, according to the national express standards in China, and the other one is the relationship between the business volume and freight, which was described by using the elasticity of demand theory. The model also considered the changes of the express business volume and operating costs in different time in a year, and a numerical experiment was proposed in the last section.This study focuses on the issue of delay in express delivery especially on the peak time of on-line shopping, and a simulation model of regional express logistics system to forecast the business demand of express industry in a specific region was proposed, considering the regional economy, e-commerce industry, and logistics policies. By consider the factors of logistics policies and corporate economic interests, this paper proposed a model to determine the workforce size and express freight in a specific region for the express company, in order to solve the problem mentioned above.