A GRASP Algorithm for Trailer Scheduling of Crossdock Operations in Cold-chain Logistics

Crossdocks play a significant role in cold-chain logistics. This paper addresses a trailer scheduling problem with crossdock operation in cold-chain logistics. A mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model is constructed in this paper. Internal operations and the scheduling on inbound and outbound trailers have been planned with the objective to minimize the total costs (penalty cost from suppliers and customers, inventory cost and transportation cost) incurred in transhipment. Not only the repacking operations at crossdock are considered, but also some features of the cold chain are taken into account in this model. A set of instances are tested by solver CPLEX. The running time to solve large-scale instances is fairly long. Therefore, we proposed a GRASP algorithm for this problem to solve the large scale instances in reality. Finally, we compare the results of CPLEX and the GRASP algorithm. The results indicate that the algorithm is of high efficiency.