Workforce allocation for a cross-docking process using mixed integer linnear programming

Cross-docking is a strategy used by distribution centers managers that aims to reduce the time that products are held. This strategy transfers the products that are unloaded in the receiving area directly to the shipping area, reducing the time of the products in inventory and the quantity of internal handling tasks. Within this process, the vehicle unloading steps, influence directly the cross-docking strategy. For the unloading step it is necessary to allocate, in the best way possible, the available operators in the distribution center for each of the vehicles. The allocation of operators is connected to the Vehicle Scheduling Problem. The scheduling problem has been widely explored by researchers as it helps managers to understand when and where a vehicle should be (un)loaded. However, a predominant part of the research don & PRIME;t consider the workforce as a constraint. Workforce allocation is an important decision for cross-docking strategy in industry because impact on delivery time and costs. Thus, the proposal of this research was to perform a study on the Workforce Allocation Problem of an available and known workforce for cross-docking activities. The objective was to propose a mathematical model that aims to best distribute these workers to each of the vehicles, to reduce the total processing time of the available tasks. To accomplish this goal, a mixed integer programming model (PLIM) was proposed, using the C# language and the GUROBI software. The results indicate that varying the quantity of operators is more computationally hard compared to docks or vehicles. Also, for managers it is a new method to allocate the workforce and improves the efficiency of cross-docking activities.