1st ESICUP Meeting Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, March 18-20, 2004

A GRASP Approach
for the Container Loading
Problem
Ana Mouraa,c
Jos Fernando Oliveirab,c

b
c

a ESTIG Escola Superior de Tecnologia e Gesto , Bragana, Portugal

FEUP Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

INESC -Porto Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Porto, Portugal

Structure
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Container Loading Problem;

Basic Constructive Heuristic;
GRASP meta-heuristic;
Computational tests;
Cargo stability analysis;
Conclusions and Future work.

1st ESICUP Meeting Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, March 18-20, 2004

Container Loading Problem

Problem: A set of boxes has to be arranged in one

rectangular container in such a way that the container
space usage is maximised, subject to geometric and
loading constraints;
Practical Constraints included in the problem:
Orientation constraint;
Container volume constraint;
(Stability constraint);

1st ESICUP Meeting Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, March 18-20, 2004

Basic Constructive Heuristic

George and Robinson (1980)

Container has an infinite length

Basic Constructive Heuristic (2002)

Container has a finite length

Results in the elimination of the unsuccessful packing and autom atic

repacking procedures of the packing algorithm
Stop criteria:
All boxes are loaded

The container is full;

All boxes are loaded;
The unpacked boxes cant be loaded in
the remaining free spaces because their
dimensions are bigger than the
dimensions of the free spaces.

1st ESICUP Meeting Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, March 18-20, 2004

Basic Constructive Heuristic

George and Robinson (1980)

Basic Constructive Heuristic (2002)

The K parameter (used to the

All this is eliminated by performing a

local search for the best
box/orientation to open a new layer
and to fill a space

depth dimension layer selection)

A box type status open and

unopened
Box selecting ranking scheme

Results in the elimination of the packing dependence on the boxes ranking

scheme
Minimal length parameter (used

Eliminated

to prohibit the packing of new layers in

the end of the packing process)

In the end of the packing layers with small depths but better volume
utilization can arise
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1st ESICUP Meeting Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, March 18-20, 2004

Basic Constructive Heuristic

Space generation
New Heigth Space

New width Space

New Length Space

Its always created

If its width is equal or bigger than

the minimum box dimension then
the new width space is accepted

If its height is equal or bigger than

the minimum box dimension then
the new height space is accepted

If not

George and Robinson (1980)

The height space assumes the
width of the original space

Basic Constructive Heuristic (2002)

The height space stays the
same
New Heigth Space

New Heigth Space

Improves the cargo stability

1st ESICUP Meeting Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, March 18-20, 2004

Basic Constructive Heuristic

Flexible width
This parameter limits the number of columns placed in the space;

George and Robinson (1980)

Basic Constructive Heuristic (2002)

Only one column can exceed

the flexible width

No column can exceed the

flexible width
Previous wall

Previous wall
New wall

New wall

Flexible Width

Flexible Width

Improves the volume utilization

1st ESICUP Meeting Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, March 18-20, 2004

GRASP
MVU

Each GRASP iteration consists in two phases:

RCL

Construction Phase

Is performed with the G&RMod

= MVU a * ( MVU mVU )

were:

a - defines the size of RCL.

This parameter can vary between
[0,1]. With 0 the choice is totally
greedy and with 1 the choice is totally
random.

- parameter that defines the

threshold for the box types choice;

MVU - maximum volume utilization

computed for all possible
arrangements;

mVU - minimum volume utilization

computed for all possible
arrangements;

Increasing value

1.

random
CL

The next box type

to be placed
is randomly chosen
from RCL.
mVU

1st ESICUP Meeting Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, March 18-20, 2004

GRASP
2.

Local Search phase

The algorithm starts with the solution obtained in the GRASP construction
phase;
Neighbourhood structure:

A box is randomly chosen and the solution is disturbed;

The packing is rebuilt from that point, with a different box type, using the basic
constructive packing algorithm.

If an equal or better solution is founded, it becomes the centre of the new

neighbourhood;
The local search stops when no better solution in the neighbourhood is found.
Forbidden Box

Neighbourhood of the current solution

Random choice

Basic constructive heuristic

1st ESICUP Meeting Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, March 18-20, 2004

Loh and Nee (1992) problems

Volume utilization comparison

Bischoff et
al.(1995)

Gehring
Bischoff
and Ratcliff and
Bortfeldt
(1995)
(1997)

Bortfeldt
and
Gehring
(1998)

Bortfeldt and
Gehring
Eley (2002) Bortfeldt et G&RMod
al.(2003)
GRASP
(2001)

Mean Value
of Vol. Util.
(%)

69,5

68,6

70,0

70,9

70,1

69,9

70,9

70,3

Best values

10

11

12

15

13

13

15

13

Global
Optima
Solution

10

11

12

13

13

13

13

13

Best value a method achieved the best known volume utilization for a problem instance;
Global optima solution a method has packed all boxes of a problem instance in the cont ainer;

1st ESICUP Meeting Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, March 18-20, 2004

10

Utilization volume

Bischoff and Ratcliff (1995) problems

Volume utilization comparison
94

Bortfeldt and
Gehring (2001)

92

Gehring and
Bortfeldt (2002)

90

Bortfeldt and
Gehring (1998)

88

Bortfeldt et al.
(2003) TSSequencial

86

Bortfeldt et al.
(2003) TSParallel

84

Bischoff (2003)
82
Eley (2002)
80
1

10

11

12

13

14

15
G&RModGRASP

Problem sets

11

1st ESICUP Meeting Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, March 18-20, 2004

Bischoff and Ratcliff (1995) problems

Cargo stability comparison
Measurement 2 (by Bischoff and Ratcliff (1995) ) average percentage of boxes not surrounded on at least
three sides (smaller values implies better results).
Gehring and
Bortfeldt
(1997)

50
45

Bortfeldt and
Gehring
(1998)

Measurement 2

40

Eley (2002)

35
30

Bischoff and
Ratcliff (1995)

25
20

Bischoff et al.
(1995)

15

Bischoff
(2003)

10
5
1

Problem sets

1st ESICUP Meeting Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, March 18-20, 2004

G&RModGRA
SP

12

Cargo stability
Improvement of cargo stability - By increasing the number of sides of
the boxes that are in touch with other boxes or with the container walls

Reverse walls

Change objective function

Maximize the number of boxes sides
supported
Tie break - maximum volume utilization of
the arrangement

Reverse even
walls

Wall 3

Wall 2

Wall 1

Wall 3

Wall 2

Wall 1

1st ESICUP Meeting Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, March 18-20, 2004

13

Cargo stability
Weakly heterogeneous problems

Reverse walls
Same volume utilization;
Practically the same cargo stability;

Change objective function

Cargo stability increases but not
significantly;
Volume utilization decreases;

Reverse walls

Strongly heterogeneous problems

Same cargo stability;
Volume utilization decreases;

1st ESICUP Meeting Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, March 18-20, 2004

14

Conclusions and Future work

With the same constructive heuristic other meta-heuristics were
implemented:
70
60
Simulated annealing;
50
40
Tabu Search;
30
Iterated Local Search;
20
Mesurement 2 (%)

G&RModSA

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

G&RModTS

Problem sets

85
G&RModSA

2000

80
75

G&RModTS

70
G&RModILS

65
60

G&RMod

55
1

Problem sets

10 11 12 13 14 15

Computation time (seg)

Volume Utilization (%)

G&RModGRASP

90

G&RModGRASP

G&RModILS

10
95

G&RMod

1800
1600

G&RModGRASP

1400
1200

G&RModSA

1000
800
G&RModILS

600
400
200
0

G&RModTS

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Problem Sets

Develop another basic heuristic with a different packing method

1st ESICUP Meeting Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, March 18-20, 2004

15