Truck Scheduling at Cross-Docking Terminals: A Follow-Up State-Of-The-Art Review

Recent trends in the management of supply chains have witnessed an increasing implementation of the cross-docking strategy. The cross-docking strategy, being the one that can potentially improve supply chain operations, has received a lot of attention from researchers in recent years, especially over the last decade. Cross-docking involves the reception of inbound products, deconsolidation, sorting, consolidation, and shipping of the consolidated products to the end customers. The number of research efforts, aiming to study and improve the cross-docking operations, increases every year. While some studies discuss cross-docking as an integral part of a supply chain, other studies focus on the ways of making cross-docking terminals more efficient and propose different operations research techniques for various decision problems at cross-docking terminals. In order to identify the recent cross-docking trends, this study performs a state-of-the-art review with a particular focus on the truck scheduling problem at cross-docking terminals. A comprehensive evaluation of the reviewed studies is conducted, focusing on the major attributes of the cross-docking operations. These attributes include terminal shape considered, doors considered, door service mode considered, preemption, internal transportation mode used, temporary storage capacity, resource capacity, objectives considered, and solution methods adopted. Based on findings from the review of studies, some common issues are outlined and future research directions are proposed.