Abstract
Recent trends in the management of supply chains have witnessed an increasing implementation of the cross-docking strategy. The cross-docking strategy, being the one that can potentially improve supply chain operations, has received a lot of attention from researchers in recent years, especially over the last decade. Cross-docking involves the reception of inbound products, deconsolidation, sorting, consolidation, and shipping of the consolidated products to the end customers. The number of research efforts, aiming to study and improve the cross-docking operations, increases every year. While some studies discuss cross-docking as an integral part of a supply chain, other studies focus on the ways of making cross-docking terminals more efficient and propose different operations research techniques for various decision problems at cross-docking terminals. In order to identify the recent cross-docking trends, this study performs a state-of-the-art review with a particular focus on the truck scheduling problem at cross-docking terminals. A comprehensive evaluation of the reviewed studies is conducted, focusing on the major attributes of the cross-docking operations. These attributes include terminal shape considered, doors considered, door service mode considered, preemption, internal transportation mode used, temporary storage capacity, resource capacity, objectives considered, and solution methods adopted. Based on findings from the review of studies, some common issues are outlined and future research directions are proposed.
Highlights
The last few decades have witnessed tremendous growth in trade volumes globally
Considering the importance of efficient truck scheduling at cross-docking terminal (CDT) and growing attention of the community to the CDT truck scheduling problem, the present study aims to complement the findings from the survey by Ladier and Alpan [21] and perform a recent state-of-the-art review with a particular focus on the truck scheduling problem
A comprehensive review of the literature on the cross-docking concept Scheduling ITs and OTs at a CDT; Vehicle routing with a CDT Pick-up and delivery problem; Vehicle routing with a CDT Vehicle routing with a CDT Scheduling of ITs and OTs at a CDT; Evaluation of the alternative mathematical models Scheduling of ITs and OTs at a CDT; Evaluation of the alternative mathematical models JIT vehicle scheduling from a CDT toward the plant
Summary
The last few decades have witnessed tremendous growth in trade volumes globally. The role of freight terminals and distribution facilities is vital to effectively serve the trade volumes and distribute the products within supply chains [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. Some of the issues, which are caused by the growing demand for freight transportation, include congestion, delay, and various uncertainties that are associated with the product handling time at freight terminals and distribution facilities. These issues impact the supply chain operations both upstream and downstream. The rest of the manuscript is outlined as follows: the section elaborates on how the survey of the literature was conducted as well as describes the reviewed studies; the third section provides a comprehensive evaluation of the reviewed studies with a focus on the major attributes of the cross-docking operations; the fourth section summarizes the key findings and the existing research needs, while the last section presents the study conclusions as well as the future research directions
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