Research on Multi-echelon inventory model of cold-chain logistics on random demand

The general structure of the Multi-echelon inventory in cold-chain logistics is analyzed in this paper. It is divided into three levels: production cold storage, cold storage centers and sales cold storage, which is a confluence-branch structure. A Multi-echelon inventory model of cold-chain logistics on random demand is put forward. The objective of the model is to meet the marker demand as much as possible within the lowest cost of building and operating cold storages. In the case of random customer needs, each level of the cold-chain requires to decide the scale of cold storage according to the market demand cover rate, so as to avoid the cold storage vacancy that lead to a surplus of building costs and operating expenses.