Cutting stock problems

INTRODUCTION

Solid materials such as aluminum, steel, glass, wood, leather, paper and plastic film are generally produced in larger sizes than required by the customers for these materials. As a result, the producers or primary converters must determine how to cut the production units of these materials to obtain the sizes required by their customers. This is known as a cutting stock problem. It can occur in one, two or three dimensions depending on the material. The production units may be identical, may consist of a few different sizes, or may be unique. They may be of consistent quality throughout or may contain defects. The production units may be regular (rectangular) or irregular. The ordered sizes may be regular or irregular. They may all have the same quality requirements or some may have different requirements. They may have identical or different timing requirements which impact inventory.

Some examples follow:

• cutting rolls of paper from production reels of the same diameter.

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