The logistics service supply chain (LSSC) is a new type of service
supply chain with the basic structure: functional logistic service
provider (FLSP)-logistics service integrator (LSI)-manufacturers or
retailers (Liu et al., 2011). The LSSC provides flexible logistic service to
the manufacturing supply chain. FLSPs refer to traditional third party
logistics firms such as transportation enterprises, storage enterprises
among others. The LSI classifies them as suppliers when a domestic or
an international service network is established because of singularity,
normality and regionality. Baogong Logistics Company of China, for
example, integrates more than 500 storage companies, 1200 highway
transportation companies, and 500 manual loading and unloading
companies as its FLSPs. With these FLSPs, Baogong provides comprehensive
logistics services to several famous manufacturers such as
Procter & Gamble, Unilever, etc.
Service quality coordination plays a great role in LSSC management.
To meet the quality requirement of customers, LSI supervises
FLSP after the LSI outsources the logistics business to FLSP. Normally,
the LSI tends to establish a partnership with the FLSP to achieve longterm
cooperation. The partnership reduces the hesitancy of the FLSP
to do business. Moreover, the cost and risk of the LSI to search for a
new FLSP diminishes. The LSI should then schedule multi-period
quality supervisions on the FLSP. Therefore, research on quality
cooperation under a multi-period term is more significant than that
under a single-period. However, current research on quality cooperation
focuses on the manufacturing industry and on a single-period
perspective. As a result, the problem of multi-period quality supervision
in the LSSC has not been studied. This problem will be
discussed in this paper. This paper aims to answer the following
important questions: