关键词: 横向整合, 异质车辆, 库存路径问题, 随机优化模型, 改进遗传算法

Abstract: In order to minimize the expected logistics cost of the supplier alliance, the Inventory Routing Problem (IRP) of multiple suppliers and multiple products under random fluctuations of demand was studied. Based on the horizontal collaboration strategy, a reasonable share method of vehicle distribution costs among the members of the supplier alliance was designed. By considering the retailer's distribution soft and hard time windows and inventory service level requirements, a heterogeneous vehicle inventory routing mixed-integer stochastic programming model of multiple suppliers and multiple products was established, and the inverse function of demand cumulative distribution was employed to transform this model into a deterministic programming model. Then an improved genetic algorithm was designed to solve the programming model. The results of example analysis show that the use of heterogeneous vehicles for distribution can reduce the total cost of supplier alliance by 8.3% and 11.92% respectively and increase the loading rate of distribution vehicles by 24% and 17% respectively, compared with the use of homogeneous heavy-duty and light-duty vehicles. The sensitivity analysis results indicate that no matter how the proportion of suppliers' supply to the total supply of the alliance and the variation coefficient of retailers' commodity demand change, the total cost of the supplier alliance can be effectively reduced by using heterogeneous vehicles for distribution; and the greater the demand variation coefficient is, the more obvious the advantage of using heterogeneous vehicles for distribution has.

Key words: horizontal collaboration, heterogeneous vehicle, Inventory Routing Problem (IRP), stochastic optimization model, improved genetic algorithm