Optimising Bin Packing in Transportation Logistics: Heuristic Approaches and Instance Space Analysis

• R.G. Rakotonirainy Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1672-2695
• F. Netshitungulu Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3508-748X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7166/36-3-3329

Abstract

Transportation management plays a vital role in supply chain logistics, emphasizing the efficient movement and storage of goods to meet demand in a cost-effective way. In many inter-firm networks, goods are produced using various strategies, then consolidated into appropriate bins by third-party providers, and stored at different locations before reaching the final customers. This study investigates the bin-packing process in the context of transportation logistics, which serves as a key decision support tool for logistics managers who are responsible for optimising the packing and transportation of goods. Heuristic bin-packing algorithms are proposed to improve existing upper bound solutions in the literature. In addition, instance space analysis is applied to assess the effectiveness of these algorithms, focusing on how different problem features influence their performance. The results show that the selected features can explain the complexity of packing instances, providing insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the algorithms.