Variable neighbourhood search for the variable sized bin packing problem

The variable sized bin packing problem is a generalisation of the one-dimensional bin packing problem. Given is a set of weighted items, which must be packed into a minimum-cost set of bins of variable sizes and costs. This problem has practical applications, for example, in packing, transportation planning, and cutting. In this work we propose a variable neighbourhood search metaheuristic for tackling the variable sized bin packing problem. The presented algorithm can be seen as a hybrid metaheuristic, because it makes use of lower bounding techniques and dynamic programming in various algorithmic components. An extensive experimentation on a diverse set of problem instances shows that the proposed algorithm is very competitive with current state-of-the-art approaches. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.