EURO 2025 Leeds
Abstract Submission

2553. The stack loading problem with load-bearing limit

Invited abstract in session TC-32: Container Stacking and Yard Planning-1, stream Maritime and Port Logistics.

Tuesday, 12:30-14:00
Room: Maurice Keyworth 1.09

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Xinbo ZHANG
Decision Analytics and Operations, City University of Hong Kong
2. Minming Li
Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong
3. Zhou Xu
Department of Logistics and Maritime Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
4. Yingchao ZHAO
School of Computing and Information Sciences, Saint Francis University

Abstract

The stack loading problem has been studied in recent years for its great impact on the container loading and unloading operations. Among different objectives of the problem considered, minimizing the total number of unordered stackings and minimizing the total number of used stacks are the two important ones, which ensure efficient loading and unloading schedules, as well as reduce storage costs, respectively. The load-bearing setting, where each container has its own weight and bearing weight, is frequently considered in box packing operations but rarely in the existing studies on the stack loading problem. However, the load-bearing constraint on containers is very important for stack loading, because safety is of paramount importance. This paper is the first study on the stack loading problem with the load-bearing constraint with an aim to minimize the number of stacks and the number of unordered stackings. We show that this problem is strongly NP-hard even when the number of stacks is given and equals 2. For the case where the number of stacks is given and jobs on the bottom tiers are fixed, we show that the problem can be solved by dynamic programming in pseudo-polynomial time. For the general problem, based on a two-index integer linear programming formulation and a tabu search heuristic, we develop a binary-search based matheuristic. Our experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the newly developed matheuristic.

Keywords

Status: accepted

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