Research On Fresh Agricultural Products Supply Chain Logistics Outsourcing Strategy With Bilateral Freshness Preservation

Because of the perishability of fresh agricultural products and the regional and seasonal nature of their production,it is necessary to strengthen the preservation inputs in cross-regional long-distance circulation in order to achieve an effective docking between production and consumption.Related research shows that pre-cooling and low-temperature transportation are two critical aspects that affect the perishability of fresh agricultural products.In practice,in order to improve the efficiency of supply chain operation and meet the requirements of service flexibility and customer response,the suppliers are usually responsible for the freshness input of pre-cooling,while the subsequent low-temperature transportation is entrusted by the suppliers or retailers to professional third-party logistics service providers by contract,thus forming a bilateral freshness structure under different logistics outsourcing modes.With bilateral preservation of suppliers and third-party logistics service providers,different logistics outsourcing models will affect the operational decisions of supply chain members and further influence the overall preservation level and operation cost of the supply chain.Therefore,it is important to explore the logistics outsourcing strategies in the bilateral preservation scenario to ensure the quality of agricultural products and improve the performance of the supply chain.Taking a typical fresh agricultural products supply chain composed of a single supplier,a single logistics service provider,and a single retailer as the research object,this thesis considers the bilateral freshness preservation scenarios of the supplier’s origin pre-cooling and the thirdparty logistics service provider’s low-temperature transportation and adopts mathematical modeling,numerical simulation and other research methods to explore the operational decision problems under the supplier logistics outsourcing and retailer logistics outsourcing models of fresh agricultural products supply chain,respectively.First,the optimal equilibrium results of bilateral preservation effort level,pricing,and ordering in the supply chain system are analyzed by constructing a model of supplier logistics outsourcing and retailer logistics outsourcing,respectively,and sensitivity analysis of critical parameters is performed.Second,the corresponding coordination mechanism is constructed with benefit-sharing and cost-sharing for the two types of logistics outsourcing models.Finally,the optimal logistics outsourcing strategy of the fresh agricultural products supply chain is explored by comparing the benchmark models under the two types of logistics outsourcing models.Results show that:(1)The optimal equilibrium results are robust to different logistics outsourcing models,and the transfer of logistics outsourcing responsibilities between suppliers and retailers affects only wholesale prices,without affecting optimal bilateral preservation,ordering decisions,or profits for members.(2)The level of freshness preservation effort of suppliers and logistics service providers is affected by their respective freshness preservation efficiency,freshness decay extremes,and time.When the freshness decay extremes are small or the ordering lead time is short,the logistics service provider preservation effort level is lower than the supplier preservation effort level;conversely,the logistics service provider preservation effort level is higher.In addition,the optimal preservation effort level of suppliers increases with the increase of the optimal preservation effort level of logistics service providers.(3)Bilateral preservation effort level,market demand,channel pricing,and profit all increase with sales period and consumer freshness preference and decrease with price preference in the logistics outsourcing model.(4)In the supplier logistics outsourcing model,supply chain system coordination can be achieved through revenue sharing and freshness cost sharing from the supplier to the logistics service provider;in the retailer logistics outsourcing model,the freshness cost of the logistics service provider is transferred to the retailer,and system coordination can be achieved through revenue sharing from the retailer and wholesale cost sharing from the logistics service provider.(5)Comparing the results of the two types of logistics outsourcing coordination,the level of bilateral preservation effort and ordering volume of the supply chain system is higher and the system efficiency is more efficient after retailer logistics outsourcing coordination,for which it is a better strategic choice for the retailer to assume the responsibility of logistics outsourcing and carry out the collaborative operation with the logistics service provider.