Application of Heuristic Techniques to the Cutting-Stock Problem for Worktops

Abstract

This paper addresses a cutting-stock problem which arises in the manufacture of furniture. An heuristic has been developed to schedule the cutting of worktops of varying shapes and sizes from available raw material.

The work was carried out for a local manufacturing company. Interface software written at that company allows the program to be integrated into their computer system in such a way that it can easily be run by the user.

Details of the heuristic are given, together with results of some numerical experiments designed to test the robustness of the algorithm and to give some guidance as to the optimal batch size and dimensions of the raw material.

Performance of the algorithm in situ supports the results of numerical experiments, the computer solution giving some improvements over the previously obtained manual solution with respect to trim loss without incurring an unacceptable build-up of offcuts.

Keywords:

• cutting stock
• trim loss
• heuristic
• worktops