A decision support model to pallet loading problem

Today, businesses are making great efforts to obtain the best possible solution in their activities related to pallet loading, placement, cutting and packaging. For this reason, while seeking solutions to such problems, it is aimed to place as many objects as possible in the settlement area with the least amount of space. Square, rectangle, circle etc. placing objects in shapes on pallets or loading areas without layers is called a two-dimensional packing problem. Increasing the number and variety of items to be packed, additional constraints such as weight, priority, strength and fragility complicate the problem. This complexity causes the solution of such problems not to be solved in reasonable time with exact solution methods. For this reason, the best or near-best solutions are only possible with metaheuristic methods. In this study, two-dimensional circle packing problem (CPP) on circular pallets is discussed. A unique loading algorithm has been developed for the number of circles and area maximization objective functions in fixed radius pallets and a genetic algorithm-based solution model has been proposed. The performance of the proposed solution model was tested by comparing it with the results of another study obtained from the literature and using a set of test examples. As a result of the tests carried out, it is revealed that the proposed solution model achieves better performance values than the compared study. A decision support system has been developed for DPP by using the developed layout algorithm and the proposed solution model. With the developed decision support system, it is aimed to help decision makers who are looking for efficient and effective solutions for circles packing problems in their decision making.