Studying two-stage vehicle scheduling at distribution center based on cross-docking model

Abstract

The reasonable arrangement of the time of inbound trucks' arrival at the distribute center was very important to ensure the smooth circulation of goods and cost reduction. The course of unloading and sorting were regarded as two stage flow shop in the Cross-docking (CD) environment including only one door and one conveyor, applying the Johnson algorithm to solve the problem of minimizing working hour of goods (work piece). Finally, according to a distribution center' order data, the minimum time required for sorting all the batch of goods was calculated, and the optimum sequence of inbound trucks was obtained, which can provide guidance for CD practice. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.