Crossdocking is the use of inbound receipts to satisfy outbound demands. You can use crossdocking to match outbound shipments to scheduled receipts in advance. This enables you to achieve faster flow-through times and optimize warehouse resources.

Before system uses the rules engine to determine a put away suggestion, Warehouse Management checks for backordered sales order lines or WIP jobs that incoming material can fulfill if you enable cross docking for the organization. If Warehouse Management finds an eligible line, it prompts operator to put away the incoming material directly to an outbound staging lane or issue it to the WIP job. This flow avoids the unnecessary material handling and material processing.

If only a portion of the incoming material is needed to fulfill the requirement, the system directs the operator to cross dock the material needed to fulfill requirement. The system then uses the rules engine to find an optimal storage location for the remaining quantity. The system checks for cross docking opportunities before it suggests storage put away locations, if you enable cross docking for the organization.

Cross docking is available only for standard and inspection routing receipts. Depending on the parameter setting for the organization, the system may prioritize WIP demand before or after sales order demand.

Crossdock planning horizon/window
Crossdocking occurs during a period of time known as the crossdock planning horizon. The crossdock planning horizon is the time period within which the system considers demands with a schedule shipment date for  crossdocking.

The earliest crossdock time is the beginning of the crossdock planning horizon. This is the maximum time difference that a scheduled receipt can lag with respect to the scheduled shipment time. For example, if the earliest crossdock time is four hours, and a demand exists with a scheduled shipment time of 6:00 p.m., then the system does not consider material with a scheduled receipt time that is earlier than 2:00 p.m.

The latest crossdock time is the end of the crossdock planning horizon. This is the minimum time difference that a scheduled receipt can lag with respect to the scheduled shipment time. For example, if the latest crossdock time is one hour, and a demand exists with a scheduled shipment time of 6:00 p.m., then the system does not consider material with a scheduled receipt time that is later than 5:00 p.m.

The crossdock window is the difference between the earliest and latest crossdock time. For example, if the earliest crossdock time is four hours, and the latest crossdock time is one hour, then the crossdock window is three hours.

Example :
Let, Earliest cross dock time = 7 hours
Latest cross dock time = 2 hours
A SO is scheduled to be shipped @ 10PM
Then cross dock window is (7 – 2) = 5 hours
And cross dock horizon starts @ (10 – 7) 3 PM and ends (10 -2) 8 PM

Cross Docking Types
Oracle Warehouse Management supports two types of crossdocking, planned crossdocking and opportunistic crossdocking. Planned crossdocking matches expected receipts to a demand source, and opportunistic crossdocking matches demands to received supply.

In case of Planned crossdocking the pre-allocation is done during Pick Release. In opportunistic crossdocking dynamic allocation is done during material putaway.

You use planned crossdocking and opportunistic crossdocking for different scenarios. Planned crossdocking works best when you know your supply in advance. It enables you to control the throughput of your warehouse and matches known demand with expected supplies. Opportunistic crossdocking helps with uncertainties. It uses the rules
engine to match newly arriving supply to existing demands. This helps in cases in which a supply or demand source is changed, modified, or cancelled.