Bun splitting: a practical cutting stock problem

Abstract

We describe a new hierarchical 2D-guillotine Cutting Stock Problem. In contrast to the classic cutting stock problem, waste is not an issue. The problem relates to the removal of a defective part and assembly of the remaining parts into homogeneous size blocks. The context is the packing stages of cake manufacturing. The company's primary objective is to minimise total processing time at the subsequent, packing stage. This objective reduces to one of minimising the number of parts produced when cutting the tray load of buns. We offer a closed form optimization approach to this class of problems for certain cases, without recourse to mathematical programming or heuristics. The methodology is demonstrated through a case study in which the number of parts is reduced by almost a fifth, and the manufacturer's subsidiary requirement to reduce isolated single bun parts and hence customer complaints is also satisfied.

A heuristic approach to minimize the number of saw cycles in small-scale furniture factories

“…Several aspects should be considered in the generation of 2D-cutting patterns (e.g. Queiroz and Miyazawa 2014;Glass and Oostrum 2010;Morabito and Arenales 2000). The majority of cutting machines found in the furniture industry impose that only orthogonal guillotine cuts can be made.…”