Vehicle Routing with Cross Docks, Split Deliveries, and Multiple Use of Vehicles

Abstract

Cross docking plays a vital role in supply chain management. Cross docks can reduce the lead time of the product from supplier to retailer. The bene t of the cross dock would be reduced without e cient vehicle routing and scheduling. This research work proposes a mixed integer linear programming formulation to obtain feasible vehicle routes and schedules. The vehicle routing problem is characterized by heterogeneous vehicles, split deliveries, discrete time windows, linehaul, and backhaul operations. The problem is modeled to facilitate the pick up of empty pallets at the retailer during the linehaul operation and delivery of empty pallets to the suppliers during the backhaul operation. The mathematical formulation is solved using CPLEX. The research work also proposes an algorithm to obtain initial feasible vehicle routes.