Planning notes / Whole-item loads

Understand the load assignment

A useful arrangement is not a proof of the minimum.

Inside each machine group, LoadLoom expands quantities into whole pieces and sorts them from heaviest to lightest. Each piece is put into the existing load that would have the least remaining weight allowance while still fitting. A new load is opened when none of the existing ones can hold it.

What the bars mean

A load bar shows assigned dry weight divided by that group's entered limit. Empty space is unused weight allowance in this model. It is not a measurement of drum volume, airflow or how well a load will clean. Bulky and differently shaped items can require considerations outside weight arithmetic.

The lower bound

For each group, dividing total eligible weight by its limit and rounding up gives a weight-only minimum. Four 6 kg pieces with a 10 kg entered limit weigh 24 kg, so that lower bound is three loads. But no two pieces fit together, so the whole-piece model needs four. The lower bound is not always achievable.

Groups stay separate

The example's 5.1 kg group at a 3 kg entered limit uses two loads, while a different 0.9 kg group uses one. Combining their weights into a single calculation would erase a grouping decision the app must preserve.

The best-fit-decreasing approach is a heuristic. It does not guarantee the globally smallest load count, energy savings, water savings or care compatibility.