Cross-docking concept: Role, advantages and disadvantages

Market needs and demands are contingent upon continuous work on finding better, faster, more efficient and more economic systems of goods flow. The intention is to optimize the logistic processes along the supply chain in terms of achieving economic, temporal, spatial and environmental improvements. One of the possible methods to improve the efficiency of supply chains is the introduction of the cross-docking (CD) concept. The essence of the CD concept is reflected in the consolidation of goods flows into the CD terminals with little or no storage of goods. The objective is to achieve optimization of time, space and costs. This paper presents the role of the CD concept in logistics chains, description of the CD terminals, and then the advantages and disadvantages of their application. The primary objective of this paper is to present the role, advantages and disadvantages of implementing the CD concept in logistics chains