A Model and Metaheuristic for Truck Scheduling in Multi-door Cross-dock Problems

Abstract

The cross-docking is a warehousing strategy where trucks arrive from suppliers to unload, regroup, and reload their items onto trucks going to the customers. There is a common assumption that the receiving (shipping) dock has only one single door, but companies usually duplicate doors in parallel to expedite operations. This paper studies the problem of scheduling trucks in the cross-dock with multiple inbound and outbound doors with makespan minimization. The problem is first formulated by a new mixed integer programming model. Using the model, small instances are solved to optimality. The paper then proposes a hunting search metaheuristic inspired from group behavior of animals when searching and hunting for food. A set of experimental instances are carried out to evaluate the algorithm. The algorithm is carefully evaluated against the adaptation of two existing algorithms. The results show that the algorithm provides sound performance comparing with other algorithms.

Keywords::

• Truck scheduling
• Cross-dock
• Mixed integer programming
• Hunting search metaheuristic

Additional information

Notes on contributors

M. Yazdani

Mehdi Yazdani accomplished his B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering at Islamic Azad University, Qazvin branch, Iran (2002–2006), and M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering at Islamic Azad University, Qazvin branch, Iran (2006–2008). He obtained his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Islamic Azad University, Tehran Science and Research branch, Iran (2010–2014). Currently, he is an assistant professor at Industrial Engineering Department, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin Brach, Iran. His research interests are production planning and scheduling, project management, applied operations research and artificial intelligence techniques.

B. Naderi

Bahma Naderi completed his B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from Mazandaran University of Science and Technology (Iran), M.Sc. and Ph.D. form Amirkabir University of Technology (Iran), a post-doctoral program at University of Windsor (Canada). Currently, he is an assistant professor at Kharazmi University. The research interests are applied operations research (mathematical modeling and solution methods).

M. Mousakhani

Morteza Mousakhani obtained his B.Sc. in Management (1987) and M.Sc. in Management-Financial Affairs (1991) from University of Tehran, Iran. He received his Ph.D. in Management-Human Resources from Tarbiat Modarres University, Iran (1998). Currently, he is an associate professor at Business Management Department, Islamic Azad University, Tehran Science and Research branch, Iran. He is also the President of Qazvin Islamic Azad University (QIAU) as well as the Chairmen of Iranian National RoboCup Committee. His research interests are strategic management and planning, human resources management and production planning and scheduling.