Improving palletisation efficiency-The theoretical basis and practical application

In its simplest form the pallet loading problem is that of packing identical cases in layes on to a distribution pallet so that the number of cases fitted into the loading area is maximised. This problem has been extensively examined in the literature and a variety of heuristic and exact solution approaches have been proposed. Whilst the application of such solution techniques to individual problems has been illustrated in the literature, studies to date have not examined the potential improvements which may be obtained when applying such techniques across a range of practical problems. This paper addresses this issue, and illustrates the typical effectiveness of alternate improvement strategies.