Abstract
ABSTRACT Cross docking is a form of operating break-bulk freight terminals in which the receiving products are not stocked but, instead, the incoming cargo is internally transferred to be immediately shipped in distribution trucks. With this approach, inventory costs and lead-times are significantly reduced. In this work, an approximate, continuous, non-stationary queueing model is established to estimate the number of cargo discharging doors in the receiving dock. Since the traditional first-come, first-served queueing discipline is not applicable to this specific problem, an alternative formulation, called least-distance, firstserved queue discipline, is adopted and analysed with a simulation approach. The problem is modelled to support a preliminary design of a cross-dock terminal. The objective function, to be minimized, is the sum of the rent cost of the terminal facility, the waiting cost of inbound trailers when being attended at the terminal, and the cost of handling and moving freight inside the terminal.
Highlights
Freight terminals, in the less-than-truckload (LTL) transport industry, are facilities in which shipments are unloaded, checked, sorted, consolidated, and loaded into outgoing trailers for delivery elsewhere in the supply chain
A special freight terminal operation is cross docking, a logistics strategy used by companies in different industries for transferring incoming product shipments directly to outgoing vehicles without significantly storing goods in between
The objective of the comprehensive model is to minimize the sum of three costs: (a) the rent cost of the terminal building facility, which is a function of its area and layout; (b) the waiting cost of inbound trailers when being attended at the terminal, and (c) the cost of handling and moving freight inside the terminal, which depends upon the material handling equipment in use and upon the facility layout
Summary
In the less-than-truckload (LTL) transport industry, are facilities in which shipments are unloaded, checked, sorted, consolidated, and loaded into outgoing trailers for delivery elsewhere in the supply chain. The cargo is moved inside the terminal with manual fourwheeled platform dollies, pallet jacks, forklift movers, or other material handling equipment, whose selection depends on the cargo characteristics and volume, up to a temporary staging area close to the respective shipping dock door At this place, other services, such as labelling and addressing may be executed while the cargo waits to be loaded into the outbound trucks. Diverse types of problems, covering strategic and tactical decision approaches are described and analysed, such as location of cross dock terminals, cross docking networks, facility layout design, as well as operational problems such as vehicle routing, dock door assignment, truck scheduling, and temporary storage (Van Belle et al, 2012). Readers interested in a more general review of the problem shall consult Agustina et al (2010), Boysen & Fliedner (2010), and Van Belle et al (2012)
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