On the three-dimensional container packing problem under home delivery service
Journal
Asia-Pacific Journal of Operational Research
Journal Volume
28
Journal Issue
5
Pages
601-621
Date Issued
2011
Author(s)
Abstract
Home delivery service is one of the most important cost drivers in e-commerce industry. We consider the three-dimensional container packing problem under home delivery service, where each rectangular item with its specific destination is loaded orthogonally onto a rectangular container so that the utilization rate of the container space is maximized. In our framework, we assume the routing of a consignment to be given, which turns out that there is an order of unloading items with respect to the consignment. If we load items without considering the order of unloading items, we may unload and reload other unconcerned items drastically while unloading the required item. Therefore, in this paper, the unloading costs for a consignment are precisely defined according to the invisible and untouchable rule, and a subvolume scheme based algorithm is proposed. Our experimental results suggest our approach to be promising. © 2011 World Scientific Publishing Co. & Operational Research Society of Singapore. © 2011 World Scientific Publishing Co. & Operational Research Society of Singapore.
Subjects
Container packing problem; home delivery; logistics; transportation
Other Subjects
Cost drivers; Home delivery; Home delivery services; Packing problems; Rectangular containers; Utilization rates; Three dimensional; Unloading; Containers
Type
journal article