UNIVERSITY OF BATH

User’s Manual for BPP

Spreadsheet Solver
Dr Güneş Erdoğan
School of Management, University of Bath.

Download URL: http://verolog.deis.unibo.it/bpp-spreadsheet-solver

Video tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWD207zxm8Q
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Developed by Dr. Güneş Erdoğan, 2015.

School of Management, University of Bath.

DISCLAIMER: THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES,
INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE ORIGINAL DEVELOPER BE
LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING
NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF
ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

i
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 4

2. HOW TO SOLVE A BIN PACKING PROBLEM ................................................................. 4

3. SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS .......................................................................................... 5

4. STRUCTURE OF THE WORKSHEETS ............................................................................. 5

4.1 BPP Solver Console .............................................................................................................................. 6

4.2 1.Items ................................................................................................................................................ 7

4.3 2.Bins .................................................................................................................................................. 8

4.4 3.Solution ............................................................................................................................................ 8

4.5 4.Visualization ..................................................................................................................................... 9

5. FUNCTIONS ............................................................................................................... 9

5.1 Optional – Reset the workbook ........................................................................................................... 9

5.2 Setup Items Worksheet ....................................................................................................................... 9

5.3 Optional - Sort items alphabetically .................................................................................................... 9

5.4 Optional – Setup item-item compatibility worksheet .......................................................................... 9

5.5 Setup Bins Worksheet ......................................................................................................................... 9

5.6 Optional - Sort bins alphabetically .................................................................................................... 10

5.7 Optional – Setup bin-item compatibility worksheet .......................................................................... 10

5.8 Setup Solution Worksheet................................................................................................................. 10

5.9 Optional - Setup Visualization Worksheet ......................................................................................... 10

5.10 Optional - Animate Visualization Worksheet..................................................................................... 10

5.11 Engage BPP Spreadsheet Solver ........................................................................................................ 10

5.12 Optional – Feasibility Check .............................................................................................................. 10

6. SOLUTION ALGORITHM............................................................................................ 10

ii
7. CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................... 11

iii
1. INTRODUCTION

In the past two years I have developed two open-source spreadsheet solvers using Excel and VBA:
VRP Spreadsheet Solver (for vehicle routing problems) and FLP Spreadsheet Solver (for facility
location problems). Both solvers are available for download at no cost on the VeRoLog website.
As of the time of this writing, my video tutorial channel for these solvers on YouTube attracts 50
viewers per day on the average. I am receiving about one e-mail per week with a question or a
bug report. The total number of downloads per month is more than 100. A number of colleagues
in Austria, Canada, Netherlands, and Spain are using the solvers in their lectures. I must admit
that this is more than what I have expected.

In the introduction of the user’s manual of the FLP Spreadsheet Solver, I have stated that I would
be looking into developing a spreadsheet solver for Bin Packing Problems (BPPs). I have realized
that there is a need for such a solver, and I have found this solver to be much easier to design
with respect to the previous ones, since there was no connection with an external data source. In
addition, this solver works both on Windows and Macs, increasing its accessibility. It is capable of
solving two-dimensional (and by reduction, one-dimensional) BPPs with up to 50 bins and 200
items. For larger sizes, the solution algorithm still performs reasonably, but setting up the
worksheets takes more time than the solution algorithm itself.

At this point, I do not have a clear idea about the next spreadsheet solver, or if there is a need for
any other spreadsheet solver. Please send your bug reports, comments, and suggestions to
[email protected].

2. HOW TO SOLVE A BIN PACKING PROBLEM

BPP Spreadsheet Solver has been designed for simplicity above all. Using the menu item “FLP
Spreadsheet Solver” in the tab “Add-ins” (in Macs, the commands are displayed in the “Tools”
menu), you may issue the commands in their increasing numerical index, filling in data to each
worksheet as it is generated. This menu is automatically generated when the file is opened, and
deleted when it is closed. If the menu is not available for some reason, you can run the macro
SetupMenuItems to refresh it. A step by step guide is given below.

- Enter all relevant data in the “BPP Solver Console” worksheet.

- Execute “1.1 Setup Items Worksheet” and enter the names and dimensions of each item
type, as well as the number of items of each type. Do not forget to state if the item type can
be rotated, must be packed, may be packed, or cannot be a packed (this last option is for
what-if analysis). If an item type “may be packed”, do not forget to give it a positive profit,
else it will not be packed.
- Optionally, you may execute “1.2 Optional – Sort items alphabetically” for easier access
through the solution worksheet (to be setup later).
- Optionally, you may execute “1.3 Optional – Setup item-item compatibility worksheet”. This
worksheet, if setup, contains information about which item types can be packed together
into a bin.

4
- Execute “2.1 Setup Bins Worksheet”, and enter the names, dimensions, and costs of each bin
type, as well as the number of bins available for each item type. Do not forget to state if a bin
type may be used or should not be used (this second option is for what-if analysis).
- Optionally, you may execute “2.2 Optional – Sort bins alphabetically” for easier access
through the solution worksheet (to be setup later).
- Optionally, you may execute “2.3 Optional – Setup bin-item compatibility worksheet”. This
worksheet, if setup, contains information about which item types can be packed into the bin
types.
- Execute “3. Setup Solution Worksheet”. This may take some time, based on the size of the
problem.
- Optionally (and I think you will), you may execute “4. Optional – Setup Visualization
Worksheet”.
- If you have set up the Visualization worksheet, you may also want to animate it, especially if
you are using Guillotine cuts.
- “5.1 Engage the BPP Spreadsheet Solver” and wait for the run to end. For best results, allow
the solver the time to perform a few thousand iterations at least. As a fair warning, l must
state that I have found that the Mac version of Excel is orders of magnitude solver than the
Windows version.
- Check the solution and modify it to suit your objectives. Optionally, you can execute “5.2
Optional – Feasibility Check” function to see if the modified solution is still feasible.
- The “Send feedback / ask a question” command will start an e-mail addressed at me. All
(positive) feedback is welcome. Please provide details of your problem when you are asking a
question.
- The “About” command will display the current version of the workbook as well as my contact
information. Please cite the software and this manual in all projects they have been used.

3. SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

Among many others, BPP Spreadsheet Solver operates on the following assumptions:

- No safety distance is required between items in a bin.

- All items and bins are assumed to be rectangles.
- No items can be prepositioned in a bin.
- There are no constraints other than the no-overlap constraint and the (optional)
compatibility constraints.

4. STRUCTURE OF THE WORKSHEETS

BPP Spreadsheet Solver adopts an incremental flow of information, with subsets of data being
kept in separate worksheets, as depicted in Figure 1. Initially, the workbook only contains the
worksheet named FLP Solver Console. The remaining worksheets should be generated in the
sequence denoted by their indices. The names of the worksheets are hardcoded within the code,
so you are advised against renaming them. All cell references are absolute, so you are advised
against inserting or deleting cells (or columns or rows) in the worksheets. If a worksheet is
modified then the worksheets with a larger index will need to be generated again, and the

5
previous information will be permanently overwritten. If you would like to do a what-if analysis
on the parameters, you are strongly advised to make copies of the worksheets before doing so.

Figure 1: The flow of information between the worksheets. The optional worksheets are denoted
with a lighter color.

The cells containing the data in the worksheets are colour-coded with the following scheme:

The cells with a black background are set by the worksheets and should not be modified.
The cells with a green background are parameters to be set by the user.
The cells with a yellow background are to be computed by the worksheets (but can be edited).
The cells with a blue background will be the result of the solver (but can be manually input).
The cells with an orange background signal a warning.
The cells with a red background signal an error.

Note that some of the colour-coding features are not available for Excel 2007.

4.1 BPP Solver Console

This worksheet is central to the workbook, and it should not be deleted. If it is deleted, please
run the macro SetupConsoleWorksheet, or close and reopen the workbook to generate it again.
The parameters defined within the worksheet are described below.

Sequence: Instead of having a wizard interface, which is very easy to use but also very
restrictive, the workbook numbers the worksheets in the order of progress. The parameters
related to each worksheet are presented along with their sequence number. Please stick to the
sequence unless you know what you are doing.

Number of item types: Each item type has a width, length, associated profit, and the number of
items available. The option of rotating the item, and if the item must be, may be, or cannot be
packed may be input later.

Number of types of bins: Each bin type has a width, length, associated cost, and the number of
bins available. If the bin type may be used or cannot be used will be required.

6
Guillotine cuts?: This parameter with a colourful name comes from cutting rather than packing
problems. If the aim of placing the items in the bins is to cut them, and the material or the
cutting apparatus cannot stop and turn at the corners, it will need to do its cuts across the bins.
The items to placed later will need to fit into the resulting smaller pieces. An example is depicted
below. Enabling the Guillotine cuts will accommodate this cutting / packing constraint.

Item labels: If set to “Yes”, writes the type of the item into the rectangle representing it in the
visualization worksheet.

First Fit Decreasing based on: An algorithmic parameter defining the order of items being
packed within the constructive heuristic. Different settings may result in alternative solutions.
The default setting is Area, which works well on the instances where most of the items can be
rotated. For instances where most of the items cannot be rotated, Circumference, Width or
Height may result in a better solution.

Also minimize distance between identical items?: If set to “Yes”, attempts to minimize the
number of identical items being placed in separate bins, and the distance between identical
items within each bin. This option may slightly slow down the algorithm due to the distance
computation step. The main algorithm is not built for this purpose, and the users are warned not
to rely on this option. For effective results with this option, allow more time to the algorithm.

Show progress on status bar?: If “Yes” is selected, the solution algorithm will display the
iteration number and the best solution value obtained in the bottom left of the Excel window.
This takes a fraction of a second for every time it is displayed, and may steal the CPU time from
the solver. It is better suited for larges instances where fewer iterations will be performed.

CPU time limit (seconds): The amount of time after which the algorithm will end. As a general
rule: the longer time you allow, the better the results will be. I recommend at least 0.5 seconds
per item and bin, e.g. for a problem with 20 items and 2 bins, 11 seconds. I recommend a much
longer time for Mac Excel, due to the mismatch between Microsoft and Apple products.

4.2 1.Items

The columns in this worksheet are explained below.

Item Type ID: This column is automatically generated, and must not be deleted or altered.

Name: The entries in this column must be unique. Being specific at this stage will help you later.

Width (x): How wide the item is.

Length (y): How tall the item is.

7
Area: This field is automatically calculated based on the width and the length.

Can be rotated? : If set to “Yes”, the solver will look into possibility of rotating the item. It is
recommended to set it to “No” whenever applicable to speed up the algorithm.

Must be packed? : The item types that “must be packed” will have absolute priority over the
items that “may be packed”. If an item type “may be packed”, make sure that it has a positive
profit, otherwise the solver will not attempt to pack it.

Profit: The benefit of packing one item of this type. The objective function is computed as the
sum of the profits of the items packed minus the sum of the costs of the bins used.

Number of items: How many items of this type must or may be packed. If you have a type of
item for which you have to pack a minimum amount and the rest is optional, I recommend that
you split it into two types: the first “must be packed”, the other “may be packed”.

4.3 2.Bins

The columns in this worksheet are explained below.

Bin Type ID: This column is automatically generated, and must not be deleted or altered.

Name: The entries in this column must be unique. Being specific at this stage will help you later.

Width (x): How wide the bin type is.

Length (y): How tall the bin type is.

Area: This field is automatically calculated based on the width and the length.

May be used? : The option of “Do not use” is provided for the possibility of what-if analysis.

Cost: The cost of using one bin of this type. The objective function is computed as the sum of the
profits of the items packed minus the sum of the costs of the bins used.

Number of bins: How many bins of this type are available.

4.4 3.Solution

For each bin a set of columns detailing the items packed into it will be generated. You may scroll
right to see the items in the other bins. Column A also contains the List of detected infeasibilities,
below the items in the first bin. The columns in this worksheet are explained below.

Item type name: The name of type of the item. Can be chosen from the drop down menu
populated with the names of the types of items.

x coordinate: The x coordinate for the bottom left corner of the item.

8
y coordinate: The y coordinate for the bottom left corner of the item.

Rotated: If the item is rotated or not.

Max number of items: This value is precomputed based on the area of the items and the bins.
The idea is to minimize the number of cells required for the solution spreadsheet.

Total area: The sum of the column Area. In a feasible solution, Total Area should be less than or
equal to the area of the bin.

Net profit: The sum of the profits of the items in the bin minus the cost of the bin (if there is at
least one item in it).

4.5 4.Visualization

This worksheet is optional, and if generated, it contains rectangle shapes showing the bins and
the items in the bins. You can move the shapes around to see if you can arrive at a better or
better looking solution, but unfortunately the current design will not automatically write your
solution into the solution worksheet.

5. FUNCTIONS

5.1 Optional – Reset the workbook

This is a quick way of deleting the data worksheets and resetting the console worksheet. Be
careful, it is irreversible. Corresponds to the macro ResetWorkbook.

5.2 Setup Items Worksheet

Corresponds to the macro SetupItemsWorksheet.

5.3 Optional - Sort items alphabetically

The drop down menus of the solution worksheet are populated by the list of item types. To have
alphabetically ordered drop down menus, you need to sort the item types. Corresponds to the
macro SortItemTypes.

5.4 Optional – Setup item-item compatibility worksheet

Two item types are compatible if they can be packed into the same bin. If you do not generate
this worksheet, the solver will assume that all item types are compatible with each other. If you
generate it, you may choose which item types are incompatible. Corresponds to the macro
SetupItemItemCompatibilityWorksheet.

5.5 Setup Bins Worksheet

Corresponds to the macro SetupBinsWorksheet.

9
5.6 Optional - Sort bins alphabetically

The bins in the solution and the visualization worksheets will follow the order of the bin types in
the bins worksheet. In general, it is a good idea to keep them in an alphabetical order. If you
have a certain order of bins in your mind, do not use this option. Corresponds to the macro
SortBinTypes.

5.7 Optional – Setup bin-item compatibility worksheet

A bin type is compatible with an item type if the item type can be packed into the bin type (e.g.
frozen foods and refrigerated / non-refrigerated trucks). If you do not generate this worksheet,
the solver will assume that all item types are compatible with all bin types. If you generate it,
you may choose which item types and bin types are incompatible. Corresponds to the macro
SetupBinItemCompatibilityWorksheet.

5.8 Setup Solution Worksheet

Corresponds to the macro SetupSolutionWorksheet.

5.9 Optional - Setup Visualization Worksheet

Corresponds to the macro SetupVisualizationWorksheet.

5.10 Optional - Animate Visualization Worksheet

Corresponds to the macro AnimateVisualizationWorksheet.

5.11 Engage BPP Spreadsheet Solver

Corresponds to the macro BPP_Solver.

5.12 Optional – Feasibility Check

This function is supplied for checking the feasibility of the data and the solution after manual
alterations. Corresponds to the macro FeasibilityCheckDataAndSolution.

6. SOLUTION ALGORITHM

The field of BPP research mostly focuses on heuristic algorithms. The details of the literature
would be beyond the scope of this document, and we do not claim that a single algorithm can
successfully solve all variants of the BPP. Let it suffice to state that a variant of the Large
Neighbourhood Search is implemented within the BPP Spreadsheet Solver. An outline of the
algorithm is given below.

Step 1 (Initialization): Sort the items with respect to their priority, size, and profit. Sort bins with
respect to their size and cost.

Step 2 (Constructive step): Use the First-Fit-Decreasing heuristic to pack the items into the bins.

10
Step 3 (Perturbation): Randomly remove items from bins, and randomly empty a number of bins.
Sort the bins with respect to the area packed into them and their cost per unit area.

Step 4 (Reoptimization): Use the First-Fit-Decreasing heuristic to repack the removed items.

Step 5 (Solution update): If the new solution is better than the best known solution, update the
best known solution. Otherwise, revert back to the best known solution. If the time limit is not
exceeded, go to Step 3.

7. Conclusion

Despite its shortcomings, I hope that the BPP Spreadsheet Solver will be used as a minor decision
support system for small and medium enterprises as well as for teaching and undergraduate and
postgraduate levels. I am almost sure that academics will disagree with some design choices, but
they can be corrected. I am also quite certain that practitioners will find features that do not
completely fit their needs, but it can provide you starting points that lead to an actual solution.
Please send bug reports, comments, and suggestions to [email protected].

11