A perishable product shipment consolidation model considering freshness-keeping effort

Based on Quality-based policy and Quantity-and-Quality-based policy proposed in this paper, the corresponding perishable products shipment consolidation stochastic models by integrating freshness-keeping effort decision are formulated. For each policy, analytical results give conditions and expressions of adopting these policies and freshness-keeping effort. Numerical experiments show: (i) the positive effect of fresh investment on cost, (ii) the changing tends of policy parameters, freshness-keeping efforts and cost based on all parameters, (iii) the superiority of Quantity-and-Quality-based policy over Quality-based policy in most operational environment and (iv) the cost improvement under Quantity-and-Quality-based policy than other existing shipment consolidation policies.