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Neighborhood structures for the container loading problem: a VNS implementation

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Abstract

This paper presents a Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) algorithm for the container loading problem. The algorithm combines a constructive procedure based on the concept of maximal-space, with five new movements defined directly on the physical layout of the packed boxes, which involve insertion and deletion strategies.

The new algorithm is tested on the complete set of Bischoff and Ratcliff problems, ranging from weakly to strongly heterogeneous instances, and outperforms all the reported algorithms which have used those test instances.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Statistics and Operations Research, University of Valencia, Burjassot, Valencia, Spain

    R. Alvarez-Valdes & J. M. Tamarit

  2. Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    J. F. Oliveira

  3. INESC Porto—Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    J. F. Oliveira

  4. Department of Computer Science, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain

    F. Parreño

Authors
  1. F. Parreño
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  2. R. Alvarez-Valdes
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  3. J. F. Oliveira
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  4. J. M. Tamarit
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Correspondence to R. Alvarez-Valdes.

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Parreño, F., Alvarez-Valdes, R., Oliveira, J.F. et al. Neighborhood structures for the container loading problem: a VNS implementation. J Heuristics 16, 1–22 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10732-008-9081-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10732-008-9081-3

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