Layout and control policies for cross docking operations

Many supply chains strive to shorten the time between a customer’s order and the actual delivery of the ordered goods. Cross docking is one of the options to reduce these response times. Cross docking facilities are dynamic environments where products arrive and leave the same day. To deal with these dynamic aspects, the need for efficient control policies in combination with flexible and easy to reconfigure storage area layouts increases. We present a dynamic design methodology to select control policies and determine layout rules for cross docking facilities. We present both advantages and disadvantages of the proposed layout procedures. We use the cross docking center of the ‘Royal Horticultural Company Lemkes’ in The Netherlands as the basis for a comparative analysis of the procedures presented. We show that, by applying our design methodology, a savings of 16% can be obtained in total travel distances of employees.