Scheduling cross docking logistics optimization problem with multiple inbound vehicles and one outbound vehicle

This paper studies two-stage cross docking logistics optimization problem with the objective to minimize the makespan, in which we analyze a model with multiple suppliers and clients, and one warehouse that employs cross docking which operating multiple inbound vehicles and one outbound vehicle. A mixed integer programming (MIP) is first built and then solved by CPLEX for small scale instances. Moreover, two heuristics are constructed to observe the performance for moderate and large scale instances. Two lower bounds are further presented to compare with the two heuristics. Finally, computational experiments are carefully designed to illustrate and compare these approaches.