Cross-docking is a practice in logistics of:
- unloading materials from an incoming semi-trailer truck or railroad car
- loading these materials directly into outbound trucks, trailers, or rail cars,
with little or no storage in between.
Reasons for applying cross docking are:
- to change type of conveyance
- to sort material intended for different destinations
- to combine material from different origins into transport vehicles (or containers)
with the same, or similar destination.
In the LTL trucking industry, cross-docking is done by moving cargo from one transport vehicle directly into another, with minimal or no warehousing. In retail practice, cross-docking operations may utilize staging areas where inbound materials are sorted, consolidated, and stored until the outbound shipment is complete and ready to ship.
Application areas:
Industries: a.o. Consumer Packaged Goods, Retail, Fast Moving Consumer Goods
Solutions: a.o. Vehicle Routing and Dispatch solutions
ORTEC contribution:
Solutions like ORTEC Vehicle Routing and Dispatch (both Windows based and SAP embedded) are essential to realize the concept of Cross Docking.
ORTEC references:
to be added
Source and extra information
- Supply Chain Digest on Cross Docking
- SAP on Cross Docking
- Hofstra University Transportation Dictionary on Cross Docking
>>Back to Dictionary