Vehicle routing problem with cross-docking as part of industry 4.0 logistics

The work presented in this paper has been supported by West Bohemia University in Pilsen (project No.SGS SGS-2021-022 - Financial (stock) markets, modeling and prediction of behavior).The trends associated with the onset of Industry 4.0 are obvious and require a prompt response from the company. An indisputable advantage is the use of the cross-docking strategy, which makes it possible to coordinate all logistics processes and achieve optimization of transport costs while maintaining minimal handling and storage. The goods are directly redistributed within the distribution system to specific customers according to their requirements without the need for storage. This logistic method is very often associated with various types of vehicle routing problem. It enables the introduction and use of Industry 4.0 principles. The aim of this contribution is to find out the possibilities of using Cross-docking within the vehicle routing problem. The output is a classification of five vehicle routing problems and their further breakdown, which are successfully connected with the idea of Cross-docking technology. This is a Capacitated vehicle routing problem with cross-docking, Open vehicle routing problem with cross-docking, Vehicle routing problem with cross-docking for multi-products, Multi-echelon distribution networks and Rich vehicle routing problem with cross-docking. Literature analysis shows that it is not an isolated technology but a tool offering a comprehensive logistics service connecting several processes. Offer various combinations of technologies in conjunction with vehicle routing problems to provide economic benefit and reduce the environmental impact of logistics chains

Two-echelon freight transport optimisation: unifying concepts via a systematic review

Multi-echelon distribution schemes are one of the most common strategies adopted by the transport companies in an aim of cost reduction, but their identification in scientific literature is not always easy due to a lack of unification. This paper presents the main concepts of two-echelon distribution via a systematic review, in the specific a meta-narrative analysis, in order to identify and unify the main concepts, issues and methods that can be helpful for scientists and transport practitioners. The problem of system cost optimisation in two-echelon freight transport systems is defined. Moreover, the main variants are synthetically presented and discussed. Finally, future research directions are proposed.location-routing problems, multi-echelon distribution, cross-docking, combinatorial optimisation, systematic review.

Freight distribution systems with cross-docking: a multidisciplinary analysis

Freight transport constitutes one of the main activities that influences economy and society, as it assures a vital link between suppliers and customers and it represents a major source of employment. Multi-echelon distribution is one of the most common strategies adopted by the transport companies in an aim of cost reduction. This paper presents the main concepts of multi-echelon distribution with cross-docks through a multidisciplinary analysis that includes an optimisation study (using both exact and heuristic methods), a geographic approach (based on the concept of accessibility) and a socio-economic analysis. a conceptual framework for logistics and transport pooling systems, as well as a simulation method for strategic planning optimisation.Freight transport systems, cross-docking, simulation, collaboration, socio-economic issues

Simulation and optimization methods for logistics pooling in the outbound supply chain

Logistics pooling and collaborative transportation systems are relatively new concepts in logistics research, but are very popular in practice. This communication proposes a conceptual framework for logistics and transportation pooling systems, as well as a simulation method for strategic planning optimization. This method is based on a twostep constructive heuristic in order to estimate for big instances the transportation and storage costs at a macroscopic level. Four possible scenarios are explored and commented. Finally, a socio-economic analysis based on 20 semi-directive interviews is presented to propose the limitations and obstacles of logistics poolingLogistics pooling, supply chain management, optimization, group reasoning, simulation

Cargo Consolidation and Distribution Through a Terminals-Network: A Branch-And-Price Approach

Less-than-truckload is a transport modality that includes many practical variations to convey a number of transportation-requests from the origin locations to their destinations by using the possibility of goods-transshipments on the carrier?s terminals-network. In this way logistics companies are required to consolidate shipments from different suppliers in the outbound vehicles at a terminal of the network. We present a methodology for finding near-optimal solutions to a less-than-truckload shipping modality used for cargo consolidation and distribution through a terminals-network. The methodology uses column generation combined with an incomplete branch-and-price procedure.Fil: Dondo, Rodolfo Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Industria Química; Argentin

A branch-and-price method for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Cross-Docking and Time Windows

One important factor in supply chain management is to efficiently control the supply chain flows. Due to its importance, many companies are trying to develop efficient methods to increase customer satisfaction and reduce costs. Cross-docking is considered a good method to reduce inventory and improve responsiveness. The Vehicle Routing Problem with Cross-Docking and Time Windows (VRP-CD-TW) consists on designing the minimum-cost set of routes to serve a given set of transportation requests while respecting constraints on vehicles capacity, customer time windows and using transfers on a cross-docking base. Each customer must be visited just once and mixed tours comprising pick-up and delivery stops are not allowed. For a given vehicle, the designed pick-up tour must precede its delivery tour. In this work, we model the VRP-CD-TW assuming that all feasible orders are known in advance. We present a new mixed integer program to model the VRP-CD-TW and reformulate it via Dantzig–Wolfe decomposition to later develop a column generation procedure. The proposed branch-and-price algorithm shows encouraging results on solving some Solomon-based instances.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Vehicle Routing and Scheduling Problem for a multi-period, multi-perishable product system with time window: A Case study

[EN] The well-known Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is to find proper sequence of routes in order to minimize transportation costs. In this paper, a mixed-integer programming model is presented for a food distributer company and the model outputs are to determine the optimal routes and amount of pickup and delivery. In the objective function, the costs of transportation, holding, tardiness and earliness are considered simultaneously. The proposed model with respect to real conditions is multi-period and has two different time periods: one for dispatching vehicles to customers and suppliers and the other for receiving customers’ orders. Time window and split pickup and delivery are considered for perishable products. The proposed model is nonlinear and will be linearized using exact techniques. At the end, model is solved using GAMS and the sensitivity analysis is performed. The results indicate that the trend of changes in holding and transportation costs in compared to tardiness and earliness costs are closed together and are not so sensitive to demand changes.Rashidi Komijan, A.; Delavari, D. (2017). Vehicle Routing and Scheduling Problem for a multi-period, multi-perishable product system with time window: A Case study. International Journal of Production Management and Engineering. 5(2):45-53. doi:10.4995/ijpme.2017.5960SWORD455352DENG, A., MAO, C., & ZHOU, Y. (2009). Optimizing Research of an Improved Simulated Annealing Algorithm to Soft Time Windows Vehicle Routing Problem with Pick-up and Delivery. Systems Engineering - Theory & Practice, 29(5), 186-192. doi:10.1016/s1874-8651(10)60049-xAndersson, H., Hoff, A., Christiansen, M., Hasle, G., & Løkketangen, A. (2010). Industrial aspects and literature survey: Combined inventory management and routing. Computers & Operations Research, 37(9), 1515-1536. doi:10.1016/j.cor.2009.11.009Baldacci, R., Mingozzi, A., & Roberti, R. (2012). Recent exact algorithms for solving the vehicle routing problem under capacity and time window constraints. European Journal of Operational Research, 218(1), 1-6. doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2011.07.037Belfiore, P., & Yoshizaki, H. T. Y. (2013). Heuristic methods for the fleet size and mix vehicle routing problem with time windows and split deliveries. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 64(2), 589-601. doi:10.1016/j.cie.2012.11.007Cacchiani, V., Hemmelmayr, V.C., Tricoire, F., (2012). A set-covering based heuristic algorithm for the periodic vehicle routing problem. Discrete Applied Mathematics, 163(1), 53-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dam.2012.08.032Cattaruzza, D., Absi, N., Feillet, D., & Vidal, T. (2014). A memetic algorithm for the Multi Trip Vehicle Routing Problem. European Journal of Operational Research, 236(3), 833-848. doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2013.06.012Çetinkaya, C., Karaoglan, I., & Gökçen, H. (2013). Two-stage vehicle routing problem with arc time windows: A mixed integer programming formulation and a heuristic approach. European Journal of Operational Research, 230(3), 539-550. doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2013.05.001Eksioglu, B., Vural, A. V., & Reisman, A. (2009). The vehicle routing problem: A taxonomic review. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 57(4), 1472-1483. doi:10.1016/j.cie.2009.05.009Hasani-Goodarzi, A., & Tavakkoli-Moghaddam, R. (2012). Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem for Multi-Product Cross- Docking with Split Deliveries and Pickups. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 62, 1360-1365. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.232Rahimi-Vahed, A., Gabriel Crainic, T., Gendreau, M., & Rei, W. (2015). Fleet-sizing for multi-depot and periodic vehicle routing problems using a modular heuristic algorithm. Computers & Operations Research, 53, 9-23. doi:10.1016/j.cor.2014.07.004Shahin Moghadam, S., Fatemi Ghomi, S. M. T., & Karimi, B. (2014). Vehicle routing scheduling problem with cross docking and split deliveries. Computers & Chemical Engineering, 69, 98-107. doi:10.1016/j.compchemeng.2014.06.015Silva, M. M., Subramanian, A., & Ochi, L. S. (2015). An iterated local search heuristic for the split delivery vehicle routing problem. Computers & Operations Research, 53, 234-249. doi:10.1016/j.cor.2014.08.005Taş, D., Jabali, O., & Van Woensel, T. (2014). A Vehicle Routing Problem with Flexible Time Windows. Computers & Operations Research, 52, 39-54. doi:10.1016/j.cor.2014.07.005Yu, B., & Yang, Z. Z. (2011). An ant colony optimization model: The period vehicle routing problem with time windows. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 47(2), 166-181. doi:10.1016/j.tre.2010.09.010Zhang, S., Lee, C. K. M., Choy, K. L., Ho, W., & Ip, W. H. (2014). Design and development of a hybrid artificial bee colony algorithm for the environmental vehicle routing problem. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 31, 85-99. doi:10.1016/j.trd.2014.05.01

Cross-docking: A systematic literature review

This paper identifies the major research concepts, techniques, and models covered in the cross-docking literature. A systematic literature review is conducted using the BibExcel bibliometric analysis and Gephi network analysis tools. A research focus parallelship network (RFPN) analysis and keyword co-occurrence network (KCON) analysis are used to identify the primary research themes. The RFPN results suggest that vehicle routing, inventory control, scheduling, warehousing, and distribution are most studied. Of the optimization and simulation techniques applied in cross-docking, linear and integer programming has received much attention. The paper informs researchers interested in investigating cross-docking through an integrated perspective of the research gaps in this domain. This paper systematically reviews the literature on cross-docking, identifies the major research areas, and provides a survey of the techniques and models adopted by researchers in the areas related to cross-docking

Enrutamiento de almacenes cruzados considerando ventanas de tiempo y precios de ruta (estudio de caso: transporte de contenedores del puerto de Chabahar)

In this study, we develop a model for routing cross-docking centers considering time windows and pricing routs. In this model picking and delivery in several times is permitted and each knot can be serviced by more than one vehicle. Every truck can transport one or more product, in other words, we consider compatibility between product and vehicle. This model includes two goals: reducing the total cost and reducing the cost of carrying goods (freight fare). The total cost includes the cost required to traverse between the points, the cost of traversing the routes between the central cross-docking center and the first points after moving, and the cost to traverse the routes between the last points in each route and the depots that must be minimized. In general, the purpose of the model is to obtain the number of cross-docking center, the number of vehicles and the best route in the distribution network. We present a nonlinear programming model for this problem. We have solved the proposed model by GAMS. As the dimensions of the problem increase, the implementation time of the program increases progressively. So, in order to solve the model in medium and large scales, we proposed a genetic meta-heuristic algorithm. The results of examining different issues by the meta-heuristic approach show the very high efficiency of the developed algorithms in terms of the solution time and the answer of the problem.En esta investigación, se presenta un modelo para el enrutamiento entre almacenes con ventanas de tiempo y precios de ruta. En este modelo, se permite la recogida y entrega en varias ocasiones y cada nodo puede recibir servicio con más de un vehículo. Cada camión puede transportar uno o más tipos de mercancías, es decir, se considera la compatibilidad entre la mercancía y el vehículo. En este modelo, hay dos objetivos, que incluyen reducir el costo total y reducir el precio de envío de mercancías (flete). El costo total incluye el costo de recorrer los senderos entre los puntos, el costo de recorrer los senderos entre el almacén de la intersección central y los primeros puntos después de la salida, y el costo de recorrer los senderos entre los últimos puntos de cada sendero y los almacenes que deben minimizarse. En general, el propósito del modelo es obtener el número de almacenes, el número de vehículos y la mejor ruta en la red de distribución. Y presentamos un modelo de programación no lineal para este problema. Hemos resuelto el modelo propuesto con GAMS. A medida que aumenta el tamaño del problema, el tiempo de ejecución del programa aumenta considerablemente. Por tanto, para resolver el modelo en medianas y grandes dimensiones, presentamos el algoritmo genético metaheurístico. Los resultados de examinar varios problemas con metaheurísticas muestran la altísima eficiencia de los algoritmos propuestos en términos de tiempo de resolución de problemas