Development of a multi-objective mathematical model for the routing and scheduling of capacitated heterogeneous vehicles with multi-door cross-dock and time windows

Ghannadpour, Seyed Farid; Khajesaeedi, Fatemeh

doi:10.22119/jte.2025.511712.2736

Development of a multi-objective mathematical model for the routing and scheduling of capacitated heterogeneous vehicles with multi-door cross-dock and time windows

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

seyed farid ghannadpour ¹

fatemeh khajesaeedi ²

¹ school of industrial engineering, IUST, Tehran, Iran

² school of Industrial Engineering, IUST, Tehran, Iran

10.22119/jte.2025.511712.2736

Abstract

Many industrial companies utilize cross-docking as a logistics strategy to improve performance in costly distribution operations. In a cross-docking system, goods collected by vehicles are unloaded at inbound doors with minimal storage space and, after a short processing time, are reloaded at outbound doors. The key operational logistics and transportation challenges in cross-docking include vehicle routing and scheduling, which significantly impact cost reduction and system efficiency. This study develops a new multi-objective mathematical model for the routing and scheduling of capacitated heterogeneous vehicles with time windows and multi doors cross-docking. The objectives of the proposed model include minimizing transportation costs and reducing vehicle arrival times at the cross-dock. The role of the cross-dock as a consolidation and distribution hub is considered to optimize routing and scheduling decisions. To solve the proposed model and handle the problem’s complexity, the multi-objective AUGMECON2 algorithm is designed, employed and analyzed on some problem instances.

Keywords

Cross-dock routing

Cross-dock scheduling

Heterogeneous vehicles

Time windows

Multi-objective mathematical model

Subjects