Abstract
Efficient cutting design is essential to reduce the costs of production in the open die forging industry. This article discusses a slab cutting design problem that occurs when parallel piped items are cut from raw material steel slabs with varying widths and lengths to meet a volume requirement. The problem is modeled as a two-dimensional cutting stock problem or bin packing problem with size-changeable items. Cut loss and guillotine cut constraints are included. A knapsack-based heuristic algorithm is proposed and it is tested by a real-world manufacturer who is cutting steel for wind turbine flanges. The firm generates an annual cost reduction of approximately US $2000 000.
Acknowledgement
We thank the anonymous referees for their useful comments and suggestions.