Issues in the development of approaches to container loading
- 1 August 1995
- journal article
- Published by Elsevier BV in Omega
- Vol. 23 (4), 377-390
- https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-0483(95)00015-g
Abstract
The paper argues that existing approaches to container loading problems are each applicable only to a narrow part of the spectrum of situations encountered in practice and that there are many scenarios for which there are no adequate methodologies. A number of examples are given. Two approaches aimed at addressing some of the present limitations are discussed. One is designed to produce stable, evenly distributed packing patterns; the other caters for multi-drop loads. A comprehensive performance analysis using both published and randomly generated test problems is presented. The procedure used to create the latter is described in full to enable replication. It is shown that the two methods, when combined, provide a powerful and versatile tool.Keywords
This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit:
- Loading pallets with non-identical itemsEuropean Journal of Operational Research, 1995
- Applying spatial representation techniques to the container packing problemInternational Journal of Production Research, 1994
- An AND/OR-graph approach to the container loading problemInternational Transactions in Operational Research, 1994
- A Method for Solving Container Packing for a Single Size of BoxJournal of the Operational Research Society, 1992
- Stability aspects of pallet loadingOR Spectrum, 1991
- A comparative evaluation of heuristics for container loadingEuropean Journal of Operational Research, 1990
- A heuristic approach to the three-dimensional cargo-loading problemInternational Journal of Production Research, 1989
- Random number generators: good ones are hard to findCommunications of the ACM, 1988
- Practical Considerations of the Pallet-Loading ProblemJournal of the Operational Research Society, 1985
- A heuristic for packing boxes into a containerComputers & Operations Research, 1980