Design and Development of Robust Optimization Model for Sustainable Cross-Docking Systems: A Case Study in Electrical Devices Manufacturing Company

Abstract

This study presents a novel bi-objective solution methodology designed for sustainable material handling operations in cross-docking areas of companies. After successfully applied linearization techniques over a predefined non-linear model, a proposed mixed-integer linear programming model is designed by considering decrease of reception process lead-time; elimination of redundant material handling movements; as well as reduction in waiting time of pallets under sorting and transfer processes in packaging operations. We present a bi-objective modeling approach and outline linearization of the non-linear mathematical programming problem to minimize material handling cost and total sustainability score in terms of carbon dioxide emissions by using epsilon constraint method to find out the Pareto frontier. An illustrative data set collected from one of the leading electrical devices manufacturing companies is used to illustrate the proposed solution approach. The solution approach is shown as a comparative study after specifying some pre-processing and symmetry breaking measures, valid inequalities, and logic cuts. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.