IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v201y2010i3p751-759.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Metaheuristics for vehicle routing problems with three-dimensional loading constraints

Author

Listed:
  • Fuellerer, Guenther
  • Doerner, Karl F.
  • Hartl, Richard F.
  • Iori, Manuel

Abstract

This paper addresses an important combination of three-dimensional loading and vehicle routing, known as the Three-Dimensional Loading Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem. The problem calls for the combined optimization of the loading of freight into vehicles and the routing of vehicles along a road network, with the aim of serving customers with minimum traveling cost. Despite its clear practical relevance in freight distribution, the literature on this problem is very limited. This is because of its high combinatorial complexity. We solve the problem by means of an Ant Colony Optimization algorithm, which makes use of fast packing heuristics for the loading. The algorithm combines two different heuristic information measures, one for routing and one for packing. In numerical tests all publicly available test instances are solved, and for almost all instances new best solutions are found.

Suggested Citation

  • Fuellerer, Guenther & Doerner, Karl F. & Hartl, Richard F. & Iori, Manuel, 2010. "Metaheuristics for vehicle routing problems with three-dimensional loading constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 201(3), pages 751-759, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:201:y:2010:i:3:p:751-759
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377-2217(09)00225-2
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicos Christofides & Charles Whitlock, 1977. "An Algorithm for Two-Dimensional Cutting Problems," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(1), pages 30-44, February.
    2. Michel Gendreau & Alain Hertz & Gilbert Laporte, 1994. "A Tabu Search Heuristic for the Vehicle Routing Problem," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(10), pages 1276-1290, October.
    3. Michel Gendreau & Manuel Iori & Gilbert Laporte & Silvano Martello, 2006. "A Tabu Search Algorithm for a Routing and Container Loading Problem," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(3), pages 342-350, August.
    4. Andrea Lodi & Silvano Martello & Daniele Vigo, 1999. "Heuristic and Metaheuristic Approaches for a Class of Two-Dimensional Bin Packing Problems," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 11(4), pages 345-357, November.
    5. Pisinger, David, 2002. "Heuristics for the container loading problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 382-392, September.
    6. Francesco Carrabs & Jean-François Cordeau & Gilbert Laporte, 2007. "Variable Neighborhood Search for the Pickup and Delivery Traveling Salesman Problem with LIFO Loading," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 19(4), pages 618-632, November.
    7. Eley, Michael, 2002. "Solving container loading problems by block arrangement," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 393-409, September.
    8. G. Clarke & J. W. Wright, 1964. "Scheduling of Vehicles from a Central Depot to a Number of Delivery Points," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 12(4), pages 568-581, August.
    9. Zachariadis, Emmanouil E. & Tarantilis, Christos D. & Kiranoudis, Christos T., 2009. "A Guided Tabu Search for the Vehicle Routing Problem with two-dimensional loading constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 195(3), pages 729-743, June.
    10. Jean-François Cordeau & Michel Gendreau & Alain Hertz & Gilbert Laporte & Jean-Sylvain Sormany, 2005. "New Heuristics for the Vehicle Routing Problem," Springer Books, in: André Langevin & Diane Riopel (ed.), Logistics Systems: Design and Optimization, chapter 0, pages 279-297, Springer.
    11. Bortfeldt, Andreas & Gehring, Hermann, 2001. "A hybrid genetic algorithm for the container loading problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(1), pages 143-161, May.
    12. Crainic, Teodor Gabriel & Perboli, Guido & Tadei, Roberto, 2009. "TS2PACK: A two-level tabu search for the three-dimensional bin packing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 195(3), pages 744-760, June.
    13. Teodor Gabriel Crainic & Guido Perboli & Roberto Tadei, 2008. "Extreme Point-Based Heuristics for Three-Dimensional Bin Packing," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 20(3), pages 368-384, August.
    14. Silvano Martello & David Pisinger & Daniele Vigo, 2000. "The Three-Dimensional Bin Packing Problem," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 48(2), pages 256-267, April.
    15. Petersen, Hanne L. & Madsen, Oli B.G., 2009. "The double travelling salesman problem with multiple stacks - Formulation and heuristic solution approaches," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 198(1), pages 139-147, October.
    16. Oluf Faroe & David Pisinger & Martin Zachariasen, 2003. "Guided Local Search for the Three-Dimensional Bin-Packing Problem," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 15(3), pages 267-283, August.
    17. Davies, A. Paul & Bischoff, Eberhard E., 1999. "Weight distribution considerations in container loading," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(3), pages 509-527, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schmid, Verena & Doerner, Karl F. & Laporte, Gilbert, 2013. "Rich routing problems arising in supply chain management," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 224(3), pages 435-448.
    2. Bortfeldt, Andreas & Wäscher, Gerhard, 2013. "Constraints in container loading – A state-of-the-art review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 229(1), pages 1-20.
    3. Michel Gendreau & Manuel Iori & Gilbert Laporte & Silvano Martello, 2006. "A Tabu Search Algorithm for a Routing and Container Loading Problem," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(3), pages 342-350, August.
    4. Manuel Iori & Silvano Martello, 2010. "Routing problems with loading constraints," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 18(1), pages 4-27, July.
    5. Tian, Tian & Zhu, Wenbin & Lim, Andrew & Wei, Lijun, 2016. "The multiple container loading problem with preference," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 248(1), pages 84-94.
    6. Carlos A. Vega-Mejía & Jairo R. Montoya-Torres & Sardar M. N. Islam, 2019. "Consideration of triple bottom line objectives for sustainability in the optimization of vehicle routing and loading operations: a systematic literature review," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 273(1), pages 311-375, February.
    7. Toffolo, Túlio A.M. & Esprit, Eline & Wauters, Tony & Vanden Berghe, Greet, 2017. "A two-dimensional heuristic decomposition approach to a three-dimensional multiple container loading problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 257(2), pages 526-538.
    8. Bonet Filella, Guillem & Trivella, Alessio & Corman, Francesco, 2023. "Modeling soft unloading constraints in the multi-drop container loading problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 308(1), pages 336-352.
    9. Gajda, Mikele & Trivella, Alessio & Mansini, Renata & Pisinger, David, 2022. "An optimization approach for a complex real-life container loading problem," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    10. Andreas Bortfeldt & Gerhard Wäscher, 2012. "Container Loading Problems - A State-of-the-Art Review," FEMM Working Papers 120007, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Faculty of Economics and Management.
    11. Wei, Lijun & Zhu, Wenbin & Lim, Andrew, 2015. "A goal-driven prototype column generation strategy for the multiple container loading cost minimization problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 241(1), pages 39-49.
    12. Emmanouil E. Zachariadis & Christos D. Tarantilis & Chris T. Kiranoudis, 2012. "The Pallet-Packing Vehicle Routing Problem," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(3), pages 341-358, August.
    13. Zhu, Wenbin & Huang, Weili & Lim, Andrew, 2012. "A prototype column generation strategy for the multiple container loading problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 223(1), pages 27-39.
    14. Gzara, Fatma & Elhedhli, Samir & Yildiz, Burak C., 2020. "The Pallet Loading Problem: Three-dimensional bin packing with practical constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 287(3), pages 1062-1074.
    15. Zachariadis, Emmanouil E. & Tarantilis, Christos D. & Kiranoudis, Chris T., 2016. "The Vehicle Routing Problem with Simultaneous Pick-ups and Deliveries and Two-Dimensional Loading Constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 251(2), pages 369-386.
    16. Che, Chan Hou & Huang, Weili & Lim, Andrew & Zhu, Wenbin, 2011. "The multiple container loading cost minimization problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 214(3), pages 501-511, November.
    17. Zhu, Wenbin & Zhang, Zhaoyi & Oon, Wee-Chong & Lim, Andrew, 2012. "Space defragmentation for packing problems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 222(3), pages 452-463.
    18. Ardjmand, Ehsan & Sanei Bajgiran, Omid & Rahman, Shakil & Weckman, Gary R. & Young, William A., 2018. "A multi-objective model for order cartonization and fulfillment center assignment in the e-tail/retail industry," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 16-34.
    19. I. Gimenez-Palacios & M. T. Alonso & R. Alvarez-Valdes & F. Parreño, 2021. "Logistic constraints in container loading problems: the impact of complete shipment conditions," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 29(1), pages 177-203, April.
    20. Sheng, Liu & Hongxia, Zhao & Xisong, Dong & Changjian, Cheng, 2016. "A heuristic algorithm for container loading of pallets with infill boxes," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 252(3), pages 728-736.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:201:y:2010:i:3:p:751-759. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.