A new heuristic embedded approach for multi-constraint air-cargo loading problem

Abstract

The paper discusses the complexities of the air cargo loading problem and provides an effective approach based on the proposed heuristic to taclde the problem. The primitive class of problems like general bin packing, cutting stock and knapsack problems can be taken as the basic step towards the air-cargo loading problem. The discussed problem is very different in its nature in respect to the general pallet, container or truck loading problem. Generally, the container loading problems consider only the rectangular type of containers to load the items whereas in case of air-cargos, the shape of containers are very different such as irregular pentagon, hexagon etc. Apart from this, the objective of air cargo loading problem discussed in this paper is based on the minimization of the shipping cost of the container keeping in mind the number of constraints involved in loading. In past research literatures, most of the container loading problems are aimed to pack the container in such a way so that either the number of containers is minimized or the volume of the packed items are maximized. In this paper the objective function includes the shipment cost as the primary goal and the volume and weight of the containers are taken as constraints. A very interesting finding can be noticed in this paper which states that even if the container's volume is properly utilized the cost of shipment may be increased. The dimensions, volume and weight of the cargo boxes and containers along with the pivot weight, pivot cost and due date are some of the important criteria in calculating the logistics cost. Real time data has been taken to validate the proposed approach and show its superiority over the existing approaches. © 2006 IEEE.