Title: An efficient constructive heuristic for the cutting stock problem applied in a foam mattress industry

Authors: Mariem Baazaoui; Souhir Elleuch; Hichem Kammoun

Addresses: Department of Basic Sciences, Deanship of Preparatory Year and Supporting Studies, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam 34212, Saudi Arabia ' Department of Management Systems, College of Business and Economics, Qassim University, Saudi Arabia ' Quantitatives Methods Department, FSEG Sfax University, Tunisia

Abstract: The cutting and packing problem belongs to the combinatorial optimisation problems; it covers a wide range of practical cases in industries. The present paper investigates a new real world problem that needs to be solved through the daily operations of cutting foam blocks in an industrial company. The problem is considered as one of non-classical problems in the cutting and packing area. It represents a variant of the three dimensional cutting stock problem. The originality of the studied problem is indicated by a specific set of constraints related to the production process and the cutting ways. A constructive heuristic was developed to provide cutting patterns in advance. All possible combinations established from the ways of cutting right rectangular prisms from foam blocks define the cutting patterns. This heuristic performs well and shows promising results in reasonable computational times to provide efficient cutting plans in order to reduce the total material loss.

Keywords: optimisation; three dimensional cutting stock problem; cutting patterns; guillotine cut; constructive heuristic.

DOI: 10.1504/IJADS.2023.130597

International Journal of Applied Decision Sciences, 2023 Vol.16 No.3, pp.313 - 333

Received: 21 Dec 2021
Accepted: 17 Jan 2022
Published online: 01 May 2023 *

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