Conformation of express delivery service provider based on a two-stage method

There are three main types of service provider in China's express delivery market, namely China EMS, International express Giant and private express company. Due to their distinct characters on price, service level, infrastructure and other aspects, they are adopted by different customers. Considering the variety of service requirement, a configuration structure of potential alternative providers should be established. In this paper, a two-stage approach composed of Analytic Network Process (ANP) and Goal Programming (GP) is proposed. In the first stage, due to interdependence and feedbacks among the evaluation index elements ANP method is utilized to find a proper weight rank for each alternative. Furthermore, to realize a branch of multiobjective optimization Goal Programming helps determine the accurate business distribution proportion for each candidate company. Finally, a client company has been simulated by this approach.