Structural steel truck loading problem: Documenting expert loaders reasoning

Abstract

Structural steel transport is an important aspect of the construction and steel industries. It is surprising to find that structural steel packing is still done empirically by experienced workers. Therefore, this paper explores how this problem is currently dealt with in steel plants to document the loaders' reasoning, since no literature on the subject has been found. Such documentation could later help the development of an algorithm capable of planning these packings. Expert loaders' reasoning was captured through an experiment exploiting a set of miniature members representing structural steel members. Miniature members were created using additive manufacturing. This miniature set was then used to interview steel loaders and document their vocabulary, process, rules and reasoning.