Journal of Supply Chain Management Systems

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access
Open Access Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Restricted Access Subscription Access

Enhancment of Inventory Management Approaches in "Vehicle Routing-Cross Docking" Problems


Affiliations
1 Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran, Islamic Republic of
     

   Subscribe/Renew Journal


A cross dock is the consolidation point in a distribution network, where multiple smaller shipments can be merged to full truck loads in order to realise economies in transportation. The focus of this study is to evaluate the possibility of considering inventory management structures in order to enhance the quality of solutions achieved by the classical VRP-Cross Dock (VRPCD) modeling. A mixed-integer programming is taken into account for locating cross docks and allocating Pickup and Delivery Nodes to them by considering each node's time window in order to minimise the total transportation costs and inventory holding costs inside each cross dock which is the objective function of the modeling. "Direct Shipment" is used to attach Delivery and Pick-up nodes to cross dock facilities. Determining the necessity and amount of goods transshipment among cross docks is a key point in this modeling which causes a Semi-VMI behaviour by considering cross dock facilities as the coordinator base of the distribution network. The enhancement of the solutions by adding the ability of transshipment between cross docks is proved. Locating cross dock facilities (Strategic decision) while considering other technical issues (Operational decisions) is one of the major contributions of this study.

Keywords

Cross Docking, Inventory Management, Transportation, Mixed-Integer Programming, Facility Location Allocation.
Subscription Login to verify subscription
User
Notifications
Font Size


  • Apte, U. M., & Viswanathan, S. (2000). Effective cross docking for improving distribution effi ciencies. International Journal of Logistics: Research and Applications, 3, 291-302.

  • Boysen, N., & Fliedner, M. (2009). Cross dock scheduling: Classifi cation, literature review and research agenda. The International Journal of Management Science, 0305-0483.

  • Boysen, N. (2010). Truck scheduling at zero-inventory cross docking terminals. Computers & Operations Research, 37, 32-41.

  • Chen, P., Guo, Y., & Lim, A., (2006). Rodrigues B. Multiple cross docks with inventory and time windows. Computers & Operations Research, 33, 43-63.

  • Lee, Y. H., Jung, J. W., & Lee, K. M. (2006).Vehicle routing scheduling for cross-docking in the supply chain. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 247-256.

  • McWilliams, D. L., Stanfi eld, P. M., & Geiger C. D. (2005). The parcel hub scheduling problem: A simulation- based solution approach. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 49, 393-412.

  • Wen, M., Larsen, J., Clausen., J, Cordeau, J. F., & Laporte, G. (2007). Vehicle routing with cross docking. Interuniversity research center on enterprise network, Logestics and Transportation.


Abstract Views: 368

PDF Views: 2




  • Enhancment of Inventory Management Approaches in "Vehicle Routing-Cross Docking" Problems

Abstract Views: 368  |  PDF Views: 2

Authors

Mahdi Alinaghian
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran, Islamic Republic of
Hamed Amanipour
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran, Islamic Republic of
Erfan Babaee Tirkolaee
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran, Islamic Republic of

Abstract


A cross dock is the consolidation point in a distribution network, where multiple smaller shipments can be merged to full truck loads in order to realise economies in transportation. The focus of this study is to evaluate the possibility of considering inventory management structures in order to enhance the quality of solutions achieved by the classical VRP-Cross Dock (VRPCD) modeling. A mixed-integer programming is taken into account for locating cross docks and allocating Pickup and Delivery Nodes to them by considering each node's time window in order to minimise the total transportation costs and inventory holding costs inside each cross dock which is the objective function of the modeling. "Direct Shipment" is used to attach Delivery and Pick-up nodes to cross dock facilities. Determining the necessity and amount of goods transshipment among cross docks is a key point in this modeling which causes a Semi-VMI behaviour by considering cross dock facilities as the coordinator base of the distribution network. The enhancement of the solutions by adding the ability of transshipment between cross docks is proved. Locating cross dock facilities (Strategic decision) while considering other technical issues (Operational decisions) is one of the major contributions of this study.

Keywords


Cross Docking, Inventory Management, Transportation, Mixed-Integer Programming, Facility Location Allocation.

References