Issues in the Development of Approaches to Container Loading.pdf

Pergamon Omega, Int. J. Mgmt Sci. Vol. 23, No. 4, pp. 377 390, 1995 Copyright ~) 1995 Elsevier Science Ltd 0305-0483(95)00015-1 Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0305-0483/95 $9.50 + 0.00 Issues in the to Development of Approaches Container Loading EE B I S C H O F F M S W R A T C L I F F University of Wales, Swansea (Received October 1994; accepted after revision March 1995) 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 Umitations are discussed. One is designed to produce stable, evenly distributed packing patterns; the other caters for mnlti-drop loads. A comprehensive perform- anee analysis using both pubUshed 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. Key words--containers, space utilization, multicriteria, benchmarks 1. I N T R O D U C T I O N W H I L S T THE TERM container loading has sometimes been used in the literature as if it were a self-explanatory and complete character- ization of the problem under consideration, even a fairly superficial comparison of case study material reveals that there are many quite different practical scenarios which fall under this general heading. A basic dichotomy exists between situations in which it is requisite that the whole of a given consignment of goods is loaded and cases where it is possible to leave some of the cargo behind. Typically, the former type of problem involves multiple containers, whereas the latter is usually concerned with a single one (cf. the classification in [7] of container loading p