A dynamic approach to truck scheduling using an intelligent distributed multi-agent architecture is presented. This paper presents an inherently distributed problem, the dynamic truck scheduling problem which has motivated the current study on an intelligent multi-agent architecture for optimal real time solutions. The .Net environment is critiqued for the proposed multi-agent architecture. A d...

At cross docking terminals incoming deliveries of inbound trucks are unloaded, sorted, moved across the dock and nally loaded onto outbound trucks, which immediately leave the terminal towards their next destination in the distribution chain. Accordingly, a cross dock is a consolidation point in a distribution network, where multiple smaller shipments can be merged to full truck loads in order ...

We study a cross-dock operator’s truck scheduling problem at inbound doors in case of unknown truck arrival times. Due to uncertainty of truck arrivals, a scheduling strategy is subject to variations in costs of serving the trucks. A cost-stable scheduling strategy is defined as a schedule with low variation levels. In this paper, we analyze the cross-dock operator’s problem of determining a co...

Distributed arrival time control (DATC) is a highly distributed feedback control algorithm for the scheduling problems in heterarchical operation systems [V.V. Prabhu, Performance of real-time distributed arrival time control in heterarchical manufacturing systems, IIE Transactions 32 (2000) 323–331]. Although DATC has presented outstanding performance for the real-time scheduling problems in d...

While organizing the cross-docking operations, cross-dock managers are confronted with many decision problems. One of these problems is the truck scheduling problem. This article presents a truck scheduling problem that is concerned with both inbound and outbound trucks at multiple dock doors. The objective is to minimize the total travel time and the total tardiness. The truck scheduling probl...

This paper studies scheduling of inbound trucks at the inbound doors of a cross-dock facility under truck arrival time uncertainty. Arrival time of an inbound truck is considered to be unknown. In particular, the cross-dock operator only acknowledges the arrival time window of each truck, i.e., the lower and upper bounds of any inbound truck’s arrival time. In absence of any additional informat...

The management of trucks in a cross-docking platform is a process under five steps: the arrival, the control, the unloading, the transfer and finally the loading. In each of these steps, a sequence of decisions arise. To achieve an optimal and robust solutions, the interdependencies between the different planning functions should be taken into account, and scheduling decisions must be made simu...