Automated Optimization and Simulation of a Cross-Docking Terminal

Transport Bourassa是一家总部位于加拿大的公司，为加拿大和美国的广泛客户提供高质量和全面的运输和仓储服务。运输Bourassa正在扩大他们的服务，并增加其能力，为更多的客户提供服务。这种扩张应该得到控制，避免错误的决定。因此，运输Bourassa需要新的策略和工具来优化码头门的分配和调度，以决定在码头给定的一组码头门上进站和出站卡车的顺序。该研究项目将导致开发和采用优化技术，以提高对接码头的生产率，降低成本，避免延误。这一创新的解决方案将被称为对接终端的自动优化和模拟，将使公司能够更好地为客户服务。为了实现这一目标，本项目将开发三个主要研究主题。第一个主题将针对进出港卡车对接到接收和装运码头的顺序建立模型，以最小化总作业时间或最大化交叉对接系统的吞吐量。从进站卡车到出境卡车的产品分配以及进站卡车和出境卡车的对接顺序也是同时确定的。作为模型验证的第一步，我们将用一个小尺寸问题对模型进行测试，以验证案例研究所需信息的可用性。在第二个主题中，将提出新的启发式算法，以提高求解中大型问题的效率。第三个主题是开发一个基于Excel电子表格编程的优化平台，并将执行所有基本功能连接到公司现有的系统，以

Transport Bourassa is a Canadian Based company that provides high quality and comprehensive transport andstorage services for a wide range of customers located in Canada and United States. Transport Bourassa isexpanding their services and increase its capacity to offer services for more customers. This expansion shouldbe controlled and avoid wrong decisions. Thus, Transport Bourassa needs new strategies and tools to optimizedock door assignment and scheduling to decide on the sequence of inbound and outbound trucks at given set ofdock doors of the terminal. The research project will lead to the development and adoption of optimizationtechniques to increase the productivity of the cross dock, reduce cost and avoid delay. This innovative solutionwill be called Automated Optimization and Simulation of a Cross Docking Terminal, and will allow thecompany to better serves its customers. In order to achieve this objective, three main research themes will bedeveloped in this project.The first theme will target the development of model for the docking sequences of the inbound and outboundtrucks to the receiving and shipping docks in order to minimize total operation time or in order to maximize thethroughput of the cross docking system. The product assignments from the inbound trucks to the outboundtrucks are also decided upon simultaneously, along with the docking sequences of the inbound and outboundtrucks. As first step for model validation, we will test the model with a small size problem to validate theavailability of information that we need for the case study.In the scond theme, will propose new heuristic algorithm in order to improve the efficiency in solving mediumto large problems. The algorithm will be tested with real data available at Transport Bourassa.The third theme will focus on the development of an optimization platform based on Excel spreadsheetprogramming and will perform all the basic features of connecting to the existent system of the company to