A Review of the Solutions for the Container Loading Problem, and the Use of Heuristics

Abstract

Today, due to the rapid growth in the area of transportation, the need for logistics increases as a result of the growth in the local and global trade volumes. In the current competitive conditions in the national and international markets, each company aims to deliver its products with the lowest cost and high customer satisfaction. One way to reduce costs is to fill the container volume in the best way. Therefore, container loading problems are one of the important problems in terms of logistics. In this paper, studies on container loading problems will be discussed. Issues to be considered when dealing with container loading problems will be identified. It will be analyzed which constraints should be taken into account when placing the boxes in the container, whether boxes should be placed in pallets or individually, which heuristic algorithms should be used to reach the maximum volume in the container after the box placement or which heuristic algorithms give better results.