Study on Express Delivery Service Provider Configuration by Applying a Synthetic Method

With the demanding requirement on speed and convenience, express delivery service has already become the major transmittal form for commercial documents, files, invoices, samples and etc. In China's express delivery market, China EMS, private company and international giants are the three main service providers. Due to different characters on service level, cost, infrastructure and other aspects, they dominate different segmented market. In the process of express delivery service configuration, a synthetic approach composed of Analytic Network Process (ANP) and Linear Programming (LP) is utilized. Based on the analysis of Chinese express delivery market, a set of evaluation index for express service provider is established. Applying analytic network process method, an evaluation model is built according to the established evaluation index. Furthermore, a selection and evaluation process is simulated for a freight forwarding company. Linear Programming then has been utilized to determine the exact business volume distribution among potential service providers. The result indicates ANP method is an effective way to solve management problem with interdependent relations and feedbacks. Meanwhile, Linear Programming helps determine the way to achieve the best business configuration proportion based on company's service requirement.