Multiple Destination Bin Packing

There exists ample literature about on-line and off-line algorithms to solve the two and three dimensional bin packing problem. However, non of the off-line algorithms presented in literature are designed for the case that there are constraints on the order in which the objects have to be removed from the bin. This constraint is relevant in the case that we are loading a truck with several orders that have to be unloaded at different destinations. We present a population-based search heuristic for finding optimally packed bins, and present the data structures needed to implement the heuristic in both two and three dimensions. The algorithm is re-entrant and can be called iteratively for each destination to pack a bin with the corresponding orders. Experimental results are given to measure the average performance of the algorithm for the twoand threedimensional case.