A TOC-based heuristic algorithm for solving a two-row pattern container loading problem

The container loading problem, a real hard problem, is usually difficult to obtain even a suboptimal solution because of not only multiple complicated restrictions but also of multiple objectives. In this paper, a heuristic algorithm is proposed for solving the two-row pattern of the container loading problem in real-world. The algorithm is based on Drum-Buffer-Rope (DBR) presented in the Theory of Constraints (TOC) and the multiagent cooperative negotiation model. A particular attention is focused on improving the constrained agent by striving for the trade-off of restrictions and cooperative negotiations, so that the final solution can arrive its biggest profit.