A bounded dynamic programming approach to schedule operations in a cross docking platform

Gülgün Alpan (1) , Rim Larbi (2) , Bernard Penz (2)

1 G-SCOP_GCSP - Gestion et Conduite des Systèmes de Production
2 G-SCOP_ROSP - Recherche Opérationnelle pour les Systèmes de Production

Cross docking is a logistic technique employed to reduce the inventory holding, order picking, transportation costs as well as the delivery time. Products arriving to the cross dock are unloaded from inbound trailers, possibly reconsolidated with other products arriving from different destinations and loaded into outbound trailers within less than 24 h. In this study, we consider a multiple receiving and shipping door cross dock environment. The objective is to find optimal (for reasonably small cross docks) or near optimal (for larger cross docking facilities) scheduling policies which minimizes the total costs related to the transshipment operations at the facility.

Mots clés: Cross docking; Multiple docks; Scheduling; Dynamic programming; Bounding procedures

Domaines: Recherche opérationnelle [math.OC]; Autre

Gülgün Alpan, Rim Larbi, Bernard Penz. A bounded dynamic programming approach to schedule operations in a cross docking platform. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 2011, 60 (3), pp.385-396. ⟨10.1016/j.cie.2010.08.012⟩. ⟨hal-00512750⟩