Commodities at rest are not generating value for business. Hence, business wants to reduce those unproductive inventory in the supply chain. Cross-docking is a common practices used by several large retailers (like Walmart...) after 1980's. The commodities from the suppliers will still go through distribution centers to be shipped to the retail shops. Instead of resting in the warehouse (the process includes receiving, stacking, IS maintenance, warehouse operations, retrieving, then deliver) at the distribution center, cross-docking only allows various commodities stay in the distribution for several hours (in most of the cases).
As you see the left figure below, the trucks from the suppliers arrive at the cross-docking distribution center around the same time. Through a short time of receiving, break-bulk, sorting, various pallets of different products will be stack at gates to fill a full truckload (TL) that is ready to be shipped to the retail shops (or customers). Some products will stay in the distribution center for a longer time for some value added activities (like repackaging, bundling), so the cross-docking center still has a small space for these value-added operations. It is easy to see why cross-docking is only used by larger retailers. Small retailers may not have enough volume (economy of scale) to take advantage of cross-docking. To make cross-docking efficient, the coordination of logistics has to be very accurate. Any delay or disruption in this process will severely damage the benefits that cross-docking can bring. More information see wikipedia.
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