4colors Research reaches the final of the ROADEF/EURO optimization challenge developed with Renault Group: loading three-dimensional items into trucks as part of a wider transport plan.
Truck loading is more than making items fit. Stacking rules, container geometry and shipment timing decide which loading plan is useful, and a packing that looks good on its own can make transport more expensive.
The finalist entry, from an earlier generation of 4colors algorithms, is part of the company's long-running work on specialized combinatorial search.