A polynomial algorithm for a simple scheduling problem at cross docking terminals

Ruslan Sadykov (1, 2)

1 IMB - Institut de Mathématiques de Bordeaux
2 Realopt - Reformulations based algorithms for Combinatorial Optimization

At cross docking terminals, products from incoming trucks are sorted according to there destinations and transferred to outgoing trucks using a temporary storage. Such terminals allow companies to reduce storage and transportation costs in supply chain. This paper focuses on the operational activities at cross docking terminals. We consider the trucks scheduling problem with the objective to minimise the storage usage during the product transfer. We show that a simplification of this NP-hard problem in which the arrival sequences of incoming and outgoing trucks are fixed is polynomially solvable by proposing a dynamic programming algorithm for it.

Domaines: Recherche opérationnelle [math.OC]

Ruslan Sadykov. A polynomial algorithm for a simple scheduling problem at cross docking terminals. [Research Report] Inria. 2009. ⟨inria-00412519v2⟩