A simulated annealing algorithm for vehicle routing problem with cross-docking

Abstract

Cross-docking is a relatively new logistics strategy to minimize total transportation costs in supply chain. This paper presents a mixed integer linear mathematical model for vehicle routing problem with two dimensional truck loading plans for cross-docking strategy. In the model, a set of trucks are used to transport products from suppliers to customers through cross-docking centers. Each supplier and customer node can be visited only once and directly shipping is not allowed from suppliers to customers. Moreover, truck capacities are identified with physical dimensional limits on the contrary of weight or amount of load. The objective of the study is to determine the vehicle routes that minimize the total distance. Due to the complexity of the mathematical model, a simulated annealing (SA) algorithm is proposed to solve the problem. Proposed algorithm is tested on various randomly generated problems and compared with the optimal solutions. Results show that proposed SA can produce effective solutions within short computational time.