Using flexible crossdock schedules to face truck arrivals uncertainty

Overview & Synopsis

This paper discusses the use of robust schedules for facing uncertainty arising in crossdock truck scheduling problems. Groups of permutable operations bring sequential flexibility in the schedule, allowing to deal with late or early truck arrivals as the total order and the starting times can be determined in a reactive manner. We focus on the evaluation of a robust schedule considering both the worst maximal lateness of the trucks and the worst total sojourn time of the pallets. We also show how a robust schedule can be evaluated online, taking into account the actual arrival times of the trucks.