An algorithm for a cutting problem in window frame production

This research discusses the cutting problem encountered by a real-life window frame manufacturer. In the problem, four types of bars (upper, bottom, left and right) should be cut from raw material aluminium profiles for each window frame order. These bars must be cut such that trim loss is minimised. Moreover, the bars should be assigned to the same raw material profile if possible to increase productivity; otherwise, they should be assigned to neighbouring raw material profiles. Furthermore, the numbers of bar types as derived from a raw material profile should not be unbalanced because this scenario induces subsequent machine load imbalance. In this study, we develop a mixed integer programming model and a knapsack-based heuristic approach that minimises the weighted sum of trim loss, bar type imbalance and the degree of order spreading. The results of computational experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, and the proposed approach outperforms the legacy system of the company. Thus, this method is currently being used by the firm in question.     

A nested column generation algorithm to the meta slab allocation problem in the steel making industry

This paper addresses one of the key operational decision problems in the steel industry which is related to the allocation of orders to stock materials in the surplus inventory. The meta slab allocation problem can be stated as the ‘multi-stage multiple knapsack problem’ where the problem is to design slabs using orders with similar properties (the first stage) and allocating these designed slabs into the existing meta slabs in the inventory yard (the second stage). The objective of the problem is to maximise the allocated order weights in slabs and meta slabs. For the given problem, we propose a column generation algorithm, where a column in the master problem represents meta slabs and the sub problem is to design ‘bins’, here slabs with the given orders. The sub problem itself also becomes a multiple knapsack problem and we proposed a practical set-partitioning heuristic. The proposed algorithm was tested with daily operation data given from an integrated steel company in the Asia Pacific. The computational results showed that the proposed heuristic solved the real instances pretty well. The proposed algorithm was successfully deployed to the integrated steel mill.     

Parallelized sequential value correction procedure for the one-dimensional cutting stock problem with multiple stock lengths

A heuristic approach with parallel computation is presented for the one-dimensional cutting stock problem with multiple stock lengths. The algorithm is based on the sequential heuristic procedure that generates each pattern to produce some items and repeats until all the required items are fulfilled. A recursion is used to solve the bounded knapsack problem heuristically in the pattern generation process to reduce running time. The item values are adjusted after the generation of each pattern using a value correction formula. The computational results show that the algorithm is more effective than a recently published evolutionary heuristic in improving solution quality, and can reduce computational time because of the efficient parallel implementation.     

Pattern-set generation algorithm for the one-dimensional multiple stock sizes cutting stock problem

A pattern-set generation algorithm (PSG) for the one-dimensional multiple stock sizes cutting stock problem (1DMSSCSP) is presented. The solution process contains two stages. In the first stage, the PSG solves the residual problems repeatedly to generate the patterns in the pattern set, where each residual problem is solved by the column-generation approach, and each pattern is generated by solving a single large object placement problem. In the second stage, the integer linear programming model of the 1DMSSCSP is solved using a commercial solver, where only the patterns in the pattern set are considered. The computational results of benchmark instances indicate that the PSG outperforms existing heuristic algorithms and rivals the exact algorithm in solution quality.     

Heuristic for two-dimensional homogeneous two-segment cutting patterns

This article deals with the guillotine-constrained two-dimensional cutting problem, where a guillotine is used to cut the stock plate into rectangular pieces, such that the pattern value (the total value of the pieces produced) is maximized, observing the constraint that the frequency of each piece type should not exceed the demand. Homogeneous two-segment (HTS) cutting patterns are considered to simplify the cutting process. Each HTS pattern includes two segments, each segment contains homogeneous strips of the same direction, and each homogeneous strip contains pieces of the same type. A heuristic is presented for generating HTS patterns. It is based on dynamic programming and branch-and-bound techniques. The computational results indicate that the heuristic is able to generate solutions close to optimal, and is adequate for solving large-scale instances.     

The cutting-wrapping problem in the textile industry: Optimal overlap of fabric lengths and defects for maximizing return based on quality

This paper deals with an important problem in the last phase of manufacturing in the textile industry. This involves cutting large lengths of fabric into smaller pieces, which are then wrapped around rolls. The quality of cloth rolls transported to the customer is specified by the quality of fabric pieces that make up the roll. A piece of fabric falls within a given quality category if some of its characteristics, such as, piece length, the number of critical defects per metre, and the defective score per metre, are compatible with the corresponding quality specifications. Naturally, the selling price per metre of fabric is proportional to the quality category. Thus, it becomes necessary to determine an optimal cutting strategy of very long woven fabric (e.g. 2000 m) into smaller pieces (e.g. each 130 m long at most), which involves a difficult continuous assignment problem of identifying the optimal cutting locations of pieces overlapping with defects of known lengths and locations. Not only must the scrap be minimized but the overall profit per metre fabric should be maximized. The two objectives may not always support each other due to relative unit selling prices of various quality categories. The solution to this problem has an immediate impact on company profit. The mathematical formulation of the problem involves numerous binary variables as well as continuous variables. A Mutative Simulated Annealing approach is proposed here to solve this problem. The solution technique is tested both on real data obtained from a textile manufacturer and hypothetical data. Results are compared against upper bounds calculated for each objective defined, as well as with a sequential heuristic designed for this problem.     

An improvement heuristic framework for the laser cutting tool path problem

This paper deals with generating cutting paths for laser cutting machines by representing a tool path in a novel way. Using the new representation, the tool path problem can be viewed as finding a partitioning of contours which minimises the sum of the costs of a rooted directed minimum spanning tree to connect the partitions and the costs of a generalised travelling salesman problem (GTSP) solutions within each partition. Using Edmond–Liu’s algorithm to solve the arborescence problem, an improved Lin–Kernighan heuristic to solve the GTSP and a heuristic-repartitioning approach, tool paths can be generated that are 4.2% faster than those generated by an existing tool path construction heuristic.     

An improved best-first branch-and-bound algorithm for constrained two-dimensional guillotine cutting problems

The constrained two-dimensional cutting problem involves maximising the sum of the profits obtained from small rectangular pieces cut from a large rectangular plate where the number of each type of cut piece cannot exceed a prescribed quantity. This paper proposes a best-first branch-and-bound algorithm to find the optimal solution to the problem. The proposed algorithm uses an efficient method to remove the duplicate patterns, and it improves the existing upper bounds. It also prevents the construction of dominated patterns and introduces a new bounding strategy that can prune more than one node at a time. Computational results are compared with a well-known exact algorithm to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm is as fast as or faster than the existing algorithm and reduces the average computing time by up to 99% for benchmark problems. For some problems, it can also find optimal solutions that existing algorithms are not able to find.     

An integrated formulation for hierarchical cast design problems in the steel making industry

Production design is a key decision problem of steel making industry but due to its complexity, solution properties are not well understood. The design problem can be viewed as a multi-stage problem of bin packing, matching and sequencing sub-problems. Traditionally a sequential approach which treats each sub-problem separately has been applied to the simple case where mould width change is not allowed. However, for more general cases where casting with width change and different width is allowed, the sequential approach fails to generate good solutions. In this paper, we propose a mathematical programming formulation which can solve the design problem in an integrative way. By introducing multi-layer network representation of the cast design problem, it is now possible to generate an integrated formulation for the proposed problem. Based on the formulation, we derive a heuristic algorithm. The algorithm is adopted and tested at a large international integrated steel mill. The computational tests with real data-sets show that the proposed algorithm is quite effective and practical.     

A recursive algorithm for the rectangular guillotine strip packing problem

This article presents a recursive heuristic algorithm to generate cutting patterns for the rectangular guillotine strip packing problem in which a set of rectangular items must be cut from the strip such that the consumed strip length is minimized. The strip is placed with its length along the horizontal direction, and is divided into several segments with vertical cuts. The length of a segment is determined by the item placed at the bottom. Orthogonal cuts divide the segments into blocks and finished items. For the current block considered, the algorithm selects an item, puts it at the bottom-left corner of the block, and divides the unoccupied region into two smaller blocks with an orthogonal cut. Rotation of the items by 90 is allowed. Both lower and upper bounds are used to prune unpromising branches. The computational results indicate that the algorithm performs better than several recently published algorithms.     

IDENTIFYING ALTERNATE OPTIMAL SOLUTIONS TO THE DESIGN APPROXIMATION PROBLEM IN STOCK CUTTING

The design approximation problem is a well known problem in stock cutting, where, in order to facilitate the optimization techniques used in the cutting process, it is required to approximate complex designs by simpler ones. Although there are algorithms available to solve this problem, they all suffer from an undesirable feature that they only produce one optimal solution to the problem, and do not identify the complete set of all optimal solutions. The focus of this paper is to study this hitherto unexplored aspect of the problem: specifically, the case is considered in which both the design and the parent material are convex shapes, and some essential properties of all optimal solutions to the design approximation problem are ascertained. These properties are then used to devise two efficient schemes to identify the set of all optimal solutions to the problem. Finally, the recovery of a desired optimal approximation from the identified sets of optimal solutions, is discussed.     

Optimisation of a multi-objective two-dimensional strip packing problem based on evolutionary algorithms

This paper considers a real-world two-dimensional strip packing problem involving specific machinery constraints and actual cutting production industry requirements. To adapt the problem to a wider range of machinery characteristics, the design objective considers the minimisation of material length and the total number of cuts for guillotinable-type patterns. The number of cuts required for the cutting process is crucial for the life of the industrial machines and is an important aspect in determining the cost and efficiency of the cutting operation. In this paper we propose the application of evolutionary algorithms to address the multi-objective problem, for which numerous approaches to its single-objective formulation exist, but for which multi-objective approaches are almost non-existent. The multi-objective evolutionary algorithms applied provide a set of solutions offering a range of trade-offs between the two objectives from which clients can choose according to their needs. By considering both the length and number of cuts, they derive solutions with wastage levels similar to most previous approximations which just seek to optimise the overall length.     

Two-staged guillotine cut,two-dimensional bin packing optimisation with flexible bin size for steel mother plate design

This paper looks into the steel mother plate design problem. A slab, which is an intermediate work in process, is subsequently rolled into a mother plate with the specific dimensions of thickness, length, and width. The mother plate is then cut into customer order plates. As a slab is rolled into a mother plate through a series of horizontal and vertical rolling processes, different-sized mother plates can be generated from a single-slab type. This flexibility allows for the size of a mother plate to be determined according to the order plates assigned to it. Furthermore, when the order plates are cut from a mother plate, a guillotine cut is required to reduce the production cost. The steel mother plate design problem involves the placing of order plates on the mother plates in a guillotine cut pattern and determining the sizes of the mother plates with the objective of minimising the number of slabs; thus it may be considered as a two-staged guillotine cut, two-dimensional bin packing problem with flexible bin size. This paper introduces the problem, presents several mathematical models, and proposes an iterative two-phase heuristic method consisting of several algorithms to solve the problem. Computational results for the benchmark problems show the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

An improved method for the hot strip mill production scheduling problem

In most research on the hot strip mill production scheduling problem (HSMPSP) arising in the steel industry, it is accepted that a schedule with lower penalty caused by jumps of width, hardness, and gauge will result in lower roller wear, so it is regarded as a better schedule. However, based on the analysis of production processes, it is realised that rolling each coil also cause roller wear. In order to assessing the roller wear associated with production scheduling more precisely, it is necessary to consider it as another factor besides those jumps, especially when complicated constraints are involved. In this paper, an improved method is proposed to quantify the expected wear of the rollers done by those jumps and rolling processes. Then the HSMPSP whose objective is to maximise the total length of all scheduled coils is formulated as a team orienteering problem with time windows and additional production constraints. A heuristic method combining an improved Ant Colony Extended algorithm with local search procedures dedicated to HSMPSP is developed. Finally, computational results on instances generated based on production data from an integrated steel mill in China indicate that the proposed algorithm is a promising solution specific to HSMPSP.     

Renovation of the cutting stock process

In this paper a new approach to the cutting stock (CS) problem as one of the activities in the CS process is proposed. A thorough critical review of the literature is conducted in order to identify the main limitations of the current state of research. The main finding is that the CS problem is treated too narrowly and that the connection of the CS process with other processes in a company, along with a better transfer of information, should be studied further. The paper presents a methodology for evaluating CS process renovation benefits. A process flowchart technique is used to compare as-was and as-is states, and simulations are conducted to provide an estimate of the benefits and to compare the costs of trim loss with other production costs. A case study of a company involved in non-ferrous metal and iron retail activities is used to analyse the effects of renovation of the whole CS process, which led to a considerable reduction in cutting costs and lead times. A decrease in the variability of the CS process lead time is also noted, which can lead to a more standardised fulfilment of customers’ orders. The measurement and reduction of costs can improve the competitiveness of companies that undertake cutting or similar (e.g. packing) operations in production.     

Dynamic programming and mixed integer programming based algorithms for the online glass cutting problem with defects and production targets

In flat glass manufacturing, glass products of various dimensions are cut from a glass ribbon that runs continuously on a conveyor belt. Placement of glass products on the glass ribbon is restricted by the defects of varying severity located on the ribbon as well as the quality grades of the products to be cut. In addition to cutting products, a common practice is to remove defective parts of the glass ribbon as scrap glass. As the glass ribbon moves continuously, cutting decisions need to be made within seconds, which makes this online problem very challenging. A simplifying assumption is to limit scrap cuts to those made immediately behind a defect (a cut-behind-fault or CBF). We propose an online algorithm for the glass cutting problem that solves a series of static cutting problems over a rolling horizon. We solve the static problem using two methods: a dynamic programming algorithm (DP) that utilises the CBF assumption and a mixed integer programming (MIP) formulation with no CBF restriction. While both methods improve the process yield substantially, the results indicate that MIP significantly outperforms DP, which suggests that the computational benefit of the CBF assumption comes at a cost of inferior solution quality.     

Multiprocessor task scheduling in multistage hybrid flow-shops: an ant colony system approach

The hybrid flow-shop scheduling problem (HFSP) has been of continuing interest for researchers and practitioners since its advent. This paper considers the multistage HFSP with multiprocessor tasks, a core topic for numerous industrial applications. A novel ant colony system (ACS) heuristic is proposed to solve the problem. To verify the developed heuristic, computational experiments are conducted on two well-known benchmark problem sets and the results are compared with genetic algorithm (GA) and tabu search (TS) from the relevant literature. Computational results demonstrate that the proposed ACS heuristic outperforms the existing GA and TS algorithms for the current problem. Since the proposed ACS heuristic is comprehensible and effective, this study successfully develops a near-optimal approach which will hopefully encourage practitioners to apply it to real-world problems.     

Heuristics for the integer one-dimensional cutting stock problem: A computational study

In this paper the problem of generating integer solutions to the standard one-dimensional cutting stock problem is treated. In particular, we study a specific class of heuristic approaches that have been proposed in the literature, and some straightforward variants. These methods are compared with respect to solution quality and computing time. Our evaluation is based on having solved 4,000 randomly generated test problems. Not only will it be shown that two methods are clearly superior to the others but also that they solve almost any instance of the standard one-dimensional cutting stock problem to an optimum.     

A pegging algorithm for separable continuous nonlinear knapsack problems with box constraints

This article proposes an efficient pegging algorithm for solving separable continuous nonlinear knapsack problems with box constraints. A well-known pegging algorithm for solving this problem is the Bitran–Hax algorithm, a preferred choice for large-scale problems. However, at each iteration, it must calculate an optimal dual variable and update all free primal variables, which is time consuming. The proposed algorithm checks the box constraints implicitly using the bounds on the Lagrange multiplier without explicitly calculating primal variables at each iteration as well as updating the dual solution in a more efficient manner. Results of computational experiments have shown that the proposed algorithm consistently outperforms the Bitran–Hax in all baseline testing and two real-time application models. The proposed algorithm shows significant potential for many other mathematical models in real-world applications with straightforward extensions.     

Improved imperialist competitive algorithms for rebalancing multi-objective two-sided assembly lines with space and resource constraints

In this paper, a mathematical model and an improved imperial competition algorithm (IICA) are proposed to solve the multi-objective two-sided assembly line rebalancing problem with space and resource restrictions (MTALRBP-SR). The aim is to find lines’ rebalance with the trade-off between efficiency, rebalancing cost and smoothing after reconfiguration. IICA utilises a new initialisation heuristic procedure based on classic heuristic rules to generate feasible initial solutions. A novel heuristic assimilation method is developed to vigorously conduct local search. In addition, a group-based decoding heuristic procedure is developed to fulfil the final task reassignment with the additional restrictions. To investigate the performance of the proposed algorithm, it is first tested on MTALRBP of benchmark problems and compared with some existing algorithms such as genetic algorithm, variable neighbourhood search algorithm, discrete artificial bee colony algorithm, and two iterated greedy algorithms. Next, the efficiency of the proposed IICA for solving MTALRBP-SR is revealed by comparison with a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) and two versions of original ICA. Computational results and comparisons show the efficiency and effectiveness of IICA. Furthermore, a real-world case study is conducted to validate the proposed algorithm.