Scheduling in a Cross-Dock Based on the Departure Time of the Outboard Trucks

Abstract

According to the development of cross-dock network concept in theory and establishing cross-dock centers around the world, these centers have been attended by many companies. Cross-dock centers reduce transportation costs significantly by consolidating the loads and transferring them together. There are some problems in planning and scheduling cross-dock systems that can affect the efficiency and productivity of these systems. In this paper, a model, based on time and capacity constraints is developed. The model schedules inbound truck unloading time according to the importance, volume and existing costs of the products, and delay loads are stored in temporary storages to transfer at the next period. Furthermore, the problem is formulated in a mathematical model. It can be solved to find optimal solution, and in large size problems a heuristic algorithm is developed.