Cutting Problems in the Wood Processing Industry

The research is about the one-dimensional Multiple Stock-Size Cutting Stock Problem (1D MSSCSP). The problem arises in a wood-processing company, where a set of pieces (items) must be produced by cutting large stock objects. Such objects can be either of standard sizes or non standard sizes, i.e., objects that are leftover of previous cuts. Moreover, stock objects are stored in different places (cassettes). The demand for the items, the stock availability of (standard and non standard) objects and the cassette where each object is stored are given. The total costs consist of the trim loss costs (material costs of the unavoidable waste), the leftover costs (future costs if the residual pieces would be used again) and handling costs (costs for moving the cassettes in and out of the warehouse). An integer linear programming model and a solution procedure based on the simplex method with column generation are being developed.