The packing of boxes distributed to different customers from a central
depot is under consideration in this study. The boxes are of various
sizes and they arrive on a conveyor belt one at a time. The on-line si
tuation is assumed, which means that at each stage we only know the la
yout of the previous boxes on the partially filled pallet and the size
of the box to be placed next but we have no information about the for
thcoming ones. Further it is not allowed to move boxes already placed.
The objective is to produce efficient and stable loads by an on-line
packing algorithm, which can be implemented in automated systems. The
algorithms we develop are based on the well-known first-fit and best-f
it principles and their efficiency has been tested empirically.