A Heuristic for Multiple Container Loading Problems

Abstract

The paper presents a heuristic for multiple container loading problems. The method is suited for three-dimensional bin packing problems and for three-dimensional knapsack problems as well. In order to select containers to be loaded and boxes to be packed into a chosen container in an appropriate manner the approach includes several selection strategies. A single container is filled by means of an optional procedure that is to be integrated into the overall algorithm. The performance of the heuristic is demonstrated by a numerical comparison with several methods suggested by other authors.

Keywords: Transportation - Container - Container loading problem - Heuristic - Three-dimensional Bin packing problem - Three-dimensional multiple knapsack problem

JEL Classification: D00