Question

Assume you are the logistics manager for fictional StayFresh Grocery Stores, in Cleveland, Ohio. You are responsible for seven stores in the metropolitan area.

*How might you employ cross-docking at your biggest regional warehouse to improve the distribution of goods to each of the stores?

*Identify how cross-docking works and how it could aid in on-time (and fresh) produce deliveries.

Answer 1

Cross docking is a system in the distribution and supply chain management in which the truck bays relating to the opposite sides of the warehouse will be served by the trucks at the supplier end and the trucks at the customer end. The bulk shipment that is received from the supplier side will be divided into smaller parts and then it will be passed to the different trucks of the customers which will satisfy the demand of the various customer allocations.

Cross-docking can be used in the StayFresh retail chain to distribute the products to different retail stores. The products received at the warehouse in the bulk quantity with the help of trucks can be divided into smaller quantities depending on the supply request of the various stores and then these smaller loads will be loaded on the other trucks and these trucks will deliver these loads to the different stores. So as soon the products are received at the warehouse, these will be immediately transferred to the different stores and thus cross-docking will be quite useful in serving the demands of the different stores with the least possible time.