The multi-echelon vehicle routing problem with cross docking in supply chain management

Multi-echelon distribution networks are quite common in supply chain and logistics. Deliveries of multiple items from factories to customers aremanagedby routing and consolidating shipments inwarehouses carrying on long-term inventories. On the other hand, cross-docking is a logistics technique that differs from warehousing because products are no longer stored at intermediate depots. Instead, cross-dock facilities consolidate incoming shipments based on customer demands and immediately deliver them to their destinations. Hybrid strategies combining direct shipping, warehousing and cross-docking are upply chain management ogistics istribution networks ehicle routing and scheduling ross-docking usually applied in real-world distribution systems. This work deals with the operational management of hybrid multi-echelon multi-item distribution networks. The goal of the N-echelon vehicle routing problemwith cross-docking in supply chain management (the VRPCD-SCM problem) consists of satisfying customer demands at minimum total transportation cost. A monolithic optimization framework for the VRPCD-SCM based on a mixed-integer linear mathematical formulation is presented. Computational m ins results for several proble