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Container packing problem with balance constraints

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Abstract

This paper presents a new hybrid algorithm that addresses current limitations of container packing problems (CPPs) to increase the efficiency of oceanic transport. The proposed algorithm considers not only the balance constraints, but also the trade-off between volume utilization and weight balance. We also present a mixed integer programming model which features upper and lower bounds for the three-dimensional CPP. The computational results show that our algorithm can efficiently and realistically help shippers make decisions between volume utilization and weight balance and thereby achieve a high rate of volume utilization.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the useful comments from an associate editor and two anonymous referees. The authors are also grateful to Professor Perboli for sending us his benchmarking data, and Dr. Feng for his comments on the paper. This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2010-0025714).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-744, Korea

    Ilkyeong Moon

  2. Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence (IDSIA-USI/SUPSI), Galleria 2, 6928 , Manno, Switzerland

    Thi Viet Ly Nguyen

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  1. Ilkyeong Moon
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  2. Thi Viet Ly Nguyen
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Correspondence to Ilkyeong Moon.

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Moon, I., Nguyen, T.V.L. Container packing problem with balance constraints. OR Spectrum 36, 837–878 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00291-013-0356-1

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