Integrated production and distribution management with cross docking in supply chains

摘要

In the current context of a global and very competitive economy, multiple production and distribution activities must be properly coordinated in order to satisfy strict market requirements at the right time and with minimum cost. In typical multi-site systems, products are usually manufactured in one or more factories, moved to warehouses for intermediate storage, and subsequently shipped to retailers or final consumers. In turn, cross-docking platforms may be also used to consolidate multi-product customer demands without storing at intermediate depots. Consequently, the effective operation of complex production and distribution networks involves the management of activities performed in multiple factories, distribution centers (DCs), retailers and end users, which are usually geographical spread in many different cities, countries and/or continents. To optimally manage such complex multi-site systems, an integrated MILP-based framework for production and distribution scheduling with cross-docking in supply chains is proposed. In order to illustrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed method, a complex example taken from literature is solved to optimality with modest CPU times.