Integrated Supply Collection and Ordering System for a Crossdock Facility

DHL Supply Chain operates in more than 55 countries and has over 2,600 facilities worldwide, employing 146,000 people. In contract logistics, it offers end-to-end services to industry customers. The project involves the cross-shipment of orders transported from Eastern Europe to Turkey for DHL’s automotive manufacturer client. Orders collected from more than 70 suppliers are consolidated at a cross-docking facility before being sent to the client. In this consolidation process, the urgency of the products and consolidation constraints are taken into account. The order quantity from the suppliers, collection frequency, and the order consolidation decisions at the cross-docking facility constitute a significant portion of the logistics cost. Therefore, DHL requires a specialized decision support algorithm that minimizes end-to-end costs in the supply chain. The aim of the project is to develop a shipment decision support system that ensures the customer’s production line is supplied without delay, minimizes vehicle and inventory carrying costs, and schedules the collection of orders from suppliers based on the products to be consolidated at the cross-docking facility while minimizing the number of vehicles dispatched from the facility during the planning period.