CROSS DOCKING IN HOUSEPLANT DISTRIBUTION

摘要

Companies have to adjust their actions constantly in order to remain competitive in the current world of tight delivery schedules and high service levels. Cross docking is one of the options to reduce lead times and inventories and to improve service. Cross-docking centers are dynamic environments where products arrive and leave the same day. To deal with these dynamic aspects the need for flexible and easy to reconfigure layouts of areas within the cross-docking centre increases. In this paper, we study the cross docking of houseplants. The most dynamic process in the cross-docking centre is the distribution of the houseplants over the various customers. The objective of this research is therefore to improve the current distribution process by implementing a new efficient and flexible layout in relation with a new routing method and a new way of numbering aisles. From the perspective of total travel distances savings of 15.8% can be obtained.