Iterated local search heuristics for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Cross-Docking

Moving products between location pairs: Cross-docking versus direct-shipping

“…The computational results obtained for the Wen et al (2009) and Morais et al (2014) instances are summarized in Table 2. Our algorithm exhibits a stable and reliable performance.…”

“…This issue is not adequately clarified in previously published VRPCD papers: neither a limit on the number of vehicles is set, nor a constraint preventing empty pick-up routes is explicitly imposed. To make secure solution objective comparisons, our runs on the Wen et al (2009) and Morais et al (2014) instances do not allow empty pick-up routes. In addition, previously published methodologies solving these test problems also consider variable times for the unloading and loading operations taking place at the cross-dock, as well as time windows for both suppliers and customers.…”

“…In addition, for the cases where the minimization of the transportation costs is seen to lead to the minimum vehicle solutions, our algorithm consistently matches all best known solution travel costs. For the VRPCD, we tested our algorithm on the benchmark data set of Wen et al (2009) with up to 200 requests, as well as the instance set of Morais et al (2014) involving up to 500 requests. Regarding the synchronization between the inbound and outbound routes travelled by each vehicle, previously published methodologies solving the aforementioned test problems apply the following rule: the departure time of an outbound route is jointly determined by the arrival time of the respective products at the cross-dock and the arrival time of the vehicle assigned with this outbound route at the cross-dock (return from its pick-up route).…”

“…Tarantilis (2013) proposes a multi-restart Tabu Search approach for the VRPCD considering different consolidation scenarios, regarding the load exchange between pickup and delivery vehicles. More recently, Morais et al (2014) have proposed three Iterated Local Search metaheuristic algorithms to solve the VRPCD. They also generate a new set of instances, to test the performance of the proposed algorithm on larger instances.…”

A Novel Mathematical Model for Cross Dock Open-Close Vehicle Routing Problem with Splitting

“…Their objective was to minimize the operational costs, transportation costs and to propose an optimal sequence of vehicles and to calculate the optimum number of vehicles. Morais et al [18] considered a routing problem in cross docks and solved it. Their objective was to find the best routs for the vehicles.…”