Heuristic for the rectangular strip packing problem with rotation of items

This paper presents a heuristic algorithm for the rectangular strip packing problem, where a set of rectangular items are packed orthogonally into a strip of definite width and infinite height, so as to minimize the required height. The items cannot overlap and rotation by 90 degrees is allowed. The solution contains several sections. The algorithm is based on a sequential grouping and value correction procedure that considers multiple candidate solutions. It generates each next section using a subset of the remaining items and then corrects the values of the included items. The algorithm is used to solve 13 groups of benchmark instances. It is able to improve the solution quality for all groups.