Transshipment problem with penalty in crossdocking distribution networks

In this paper we study a new type of transshipment problem, the flows through the crossdock are constrained by fixed transportation schedules and any cargos delayed at the last moment of the time horizon of the problem will incur relative high inventory penalty cost. The problem is known to be NP-complete in the strong sense. We therefore focus on developing efficient heuristics. Based on the problem structure, we propose a Genetic Algorithm to solve the problem efficiently. Computational experiments under different scenarios show that GA outperforms CPLEX solver.