Reel and sheet cutting at a paper mill

This work describes a real-world industrial problem of production planning and cutting optimization of reels and sheets, occurring at a Portuguese paper mill. It will focus on a particular module of the global problem, which is concerned with the determination of the width combinations of the items involved in the planning process: the main goal consists in satisfying an order set of reels and sheets that must be cut from master reels. The width combination process will determine the quantity/weight of the master reels to be produced and their cutting patterns, in order to minimize waste, while satisfying production orders. A two-phase approach has been devised, naturally dependent on the technological process involved. Details of the models and solution methods are presented. Moreover some illustrative computational results are included. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.