Automatic production planning of press brakes for sheet metal bending

Abstract

This paper discusses the planning module of system that has been developed in a research project investigating the possibilities for automatic planning of press brakes. Only limited attention has been given to production-planning problems for bending processes in the sheet-metal industry. A well-considered production-planning module provides an important opportunity for cost saving and flow-time reduction. The module will support and may replace an experienced planner. Under certain assumptions, the planning problem can be modelled both ways as a Travelling Purchaser Problem (TPP) and as a Generalized Travelling Salesperson Problem (GTSP). A hierarchical decomposition approach is presented to solve the TPP, while the GTSP is solved using guided local search (GLS). These methods are compared based on a set of problems from a real production environment and perform well.

Keywords:

• Sheet metal bending
• Production planning
• Travelling purchaser problem
• Generalized travelling salesperson problem
• Hierarchical decomposition
• Guided local search

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to recognize the financial support from IWT-Vlaanderen (Instituut voor de Aanmoediging van Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie Vlaanderen).