Cross Docking

            Cross docking is basically a just-in-time system for distribution; a style of warehousing without inventory so that costs involving storage and order collection are reduced1. Cross docking means to take a finished good from the manufacturing plant and deliver it directly to the customer with little or no handling in between. The four major areas involved in warehousing are receiving, storage, order collection and shipping1. Cross docking is a warehouse technique that reduces costs by removing the functions of storage and order collection. The general idea of cross docking is to receive orders from incoming trucks and transfer them directly to outgoing trucks without the hassle of collecting and storing anything at the cross dock itself. Cross docks are the actual facilities where the process of cross docking takes place. Shipments arrive at this facility, where they are received, sorted and setup for outbound shipments. Orders received at a cross dock can be headed to a variety of different locations; some of these include production facilities, retail outlets or even other cross docks1. An efficient cross docking system can have shipments that stay at the cross dock any where from a few minutes to about forty-eight hours3. One of the main reasons for this short cycle time is the fact that the destination for a shipment is already known prior to its receipt at the cross dock.
             As it can be seen from the description of the process, cross docking can save a lot of money in the entire warehousing process. A traditional warehouse would involve the processes of unloading shipments, officially receiving them, unpacking them, storage until receipt of orders, repacking and then loading for outbound shipment. These conventional processes cost most companies large sums of money, especially the cost of storage which requires a large enough facility to hold the required inventory along with daily material carrying costs.