Cutting stock problem

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 Example 1
Consider a big steel roll from which steel sheets of
the same lengths but different width have to be
cut. Let us assume that the roll is 20 cm wide and
the following sizes have to be cut

9 inch 511 numbers

8 inch 301 numbers
7 inch 263 numbers
6 inch 383 numbers
The possible cutting patterns are
[2 0 0 0] wastage = 2 [0 2 0 0] wastage = 4 [0 0 2 1] wastage = 2
[0 0 03] wastage = 2 [1 1 0 0 ] wastage = 3 [1 0 1 0] wastage = 4
[1 0 0 1] wastage = 5 [0 1 1 0] wastage = 5 [0 1 0 2] wastage = 0
[0 0 1 2] wastage = 1

Let Xj be the number of sheets cut using pattern j

We have 2X1 + X5 + X6 + X7  511 (9 inch sheets)
2X2 + X5 + X8 + X9  301 (8 inch sheets)
2X3 + X6 + X8 + X10  263 (7 inch sheets)
X3 + 3X4 + X7 +2X9 + 2X10  38 (6 inch sheets) Xj  0

Minimize 2X1 + 4X2 + 2X4 + 3X5 + 4X6 + 5X7 + 5X8 + X10

Minimize 20X1 + 20X2 + 20X3 + 203X4 + 20X5 + 20X6 + 20X7
+ 20X8 + 20X9 + 20X10 – 11146.
10

Minimize
X
j 1
j
The LP optimum for this problem is given by X1 = 255.5, X2 = 87.625,
X3 = 131.5, X9 = 125.75 and Z = 600.375 cuts (alternate optimum).

Rounding to upper integer gives X1 = 256, X2 = 88, X3 = 132, X4 =

126. Obviously, this is feasible to the IP problem and has 602 cuts.
Round off the solution to its lower integer value
The solution [2 0 0 0] = 255, [0 2 0 0] = 87, [0 0 2 1] = 131 and [0 1 0
2] = 125 equals 598 cuts and we need 1 9 inch, 2 eight inch, 1 seven
inch and 2 six inch sheets.

[0 0 1 2], [1 1 0 0] [0 1 0 0]. We now have cut an additional 1 sheet

of 9 inch, 2 sheets of 8 inch, 1 sheet of 7 inch and 2 sheets of 6
inches.

We therefore have a feasible solution with 601 cuts, which is

optimal because we have a lower bound of 601.
Consider a one dimensional cutting stock problem where the
demand is for
619 of 8” sheets,
423 of 7” sheets and
339 of 5” sheets.

Two types of sheets of width 20 and 25 inches are available.

Find the cutting patterns and quantities that minimize waste?

The demand for the next day is for

707 sheets of 8”,
243 of 7” sheets
277 of 5” sheets.

Solve a one dimensional cutting stock problem to minimize waste?

The cost of a 20” sheet is Rs 2000 and that of a 25” sheet is Rs 2400
 1 2 3 4 5 6
8” 2 1 1 0 0 0
X2 = 619 which
7” 0 1 0 2 1 0 results in a
5” 0 1 2 1 2 4 waste of zero (Z
waste 4 0 2 1 3 0 = 0). This is one
among the
many alternate
Solutions that
Minimize 4X1 + 2X3 + X4 + 3X5 can have zero
Subject to waste.
2X1 + X2 + X3 ≥ 619
X2 + 2X4 + X5 ≥ 423
X2 + 2X3 + X4 + 2X5 + 4X6 ≥ 339
Xj ≥ 0
Extra sheets are to be treated as waste.

We can add the excess sheets to the objective function

which on simplification becomes
Minimize 20 (X1 + X2 + X3 + X4 + X5 + X6) + K
This reduces to Minimizing X1 + X2 + X3 + X4 + X5 + X6

X1 = 182, X2 = 255 and X4 = 84 with Z = 521 and the cost is Rs

1042000.
We cut 182 sheets using the pattern [2 0 0] T giving us 364 sheets of
8”. We cut 255 sheets using the pattern [1 1 1] T giving us 255 sheets
of 8”, 7” and 5”

We cut 84 sheets using the pattern [0 2 1] T to get 168 sheets of 7”

and 84 of 5”. We have a total of 619 of 8”, 423 of 7” and 339 of 5”.
We do not over produce.
 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
8” 3 2 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
7” 0 1 0 2 1 0 3 2 1 0
5” 0 0 1 0 2 3 0 2 3 5
waste 1 2 4 3 0 2 4 1 3 0

Minimizing only the waste would give us an objective function that

Minimizes X1 + 2X2 + 4X3 + 3X4 + 2X6 + 4X7 + X8 +3X9 and a
solution with X5 = 619 would be optimal with waste = 0.
If we minimize the total number of sheets cut, we have a solution
Y1 = [3 0 0]T = 206.333, Y7 = [0 3 0]T = 28, Y8 = [0 2 2]T = 169.5
with Z = 403.833 sheets. We have used variables Y1 to Y10 to
represent the variables in this case.
Defining them as integers uses 404 sheets and cost is Rs 9696000.
We now consider the second day demand of 707 of 8”, 243 of 7”
and 277 of 5”. We can solve the problem optimally to minimize
waste or to minimize the number of sheets used. Let us consider
20” sheets and minimize the total number of sheets. The optimal
solution is
X1 = 232, X2 = 243 and X4 = 8.5 with 483.5 cuts. We can get an
integer optimal solution with 484 cuts using the procedure
explained above.
The total number of sheets of 20” used to meet the two day
demand is 521 + 484 = 1005. The cost of 1005 20” sheets is Rs
2010000.

If we aggregate the two days demand to 1326 of 8”, 666 of 7” and

616 of 5” and solve for 20” sheets to minimize the total number of
sheets, we get the optimum solution with 996 sheets. The solution
is X1 = [2 0 0]T = 380, X2 = [1 1 1] T = 566 and X4 = [0 0 4]T = 50.
The cost of 996 20” sheets is Rs 1992000.
 We observe that if we solve the problem to minimize the number of
sheets, the solution is better when we aggregate the demands. We
had used 380 sheets for the pattern [2 0 0]T when we aggregated
the demand while we used 182 + 232 = 414 sheets for the same
pattern. This resulted in more waste and hence more sheets when
the demand was met daily.

If we use a combination of 20” and 25” sheets to meet the aggregate

demand the optimum solution would use only 25” sheets. The solution
is [3 0 0]T = 442 sheets, [0 3 0]T = 16.667 sheets and [0 2 2]T = 308
sheets with total = 766.66 sheets. We can get a solution with 767
sheets. The cost is Rs 1840800. If we restrict the number of available
25” sheets to 500 sheets, we have the optimum solution [3 0 0]T = 352,
[0 2 2]T = 148 (both from 25” sheets), [1 1 1]T = 270 and [0 2 1]T = 50
(using 20” sheets) to get a total of 820 sheets.
 Bin packing
• Let us assume that you have sticks of length
80. You have to break them into 10 smaller
sticks of length 11, 73, 13, 37, 51, 17, 39, 29,
23 and 19.
 2 d bin packing
• Consider a popular web portal that covers cricket. We
assume that the user, who opens the portal, sees a
rectangular space of 10 x 4 under the banner. This area
has to be used for advertisement as well as for news
items having short write up on several matches leading
to web links as well as review articles. Consider a
situation where there are 4 possible advertisements
that have dimensions 3x2, 2x3, 4x3 and 5x1
respectively. There are four news items with
dimensions 5x1 (or 3x2), 2x2 (or 4x1), 2x3 (or 3x2) and
7x1. It is obvious that there is some flexibility in terms
of area requirements as well as layout of the news
items.
• They want the news items and advertisements to be
laid into the rectangular space such that in each
category between 50 and 60% of the area required are
made available. Also it is desirable that the
advertisements are more to the left hand side or at the
right end while the news items are in the middle.
Unused space can be used for announcements. A
maximum of five announcements can be inserted and
each has a 1x1 area requirement.

• The advertisements and news items that cannot be

inserted in the 10 x 4 area can be inserted below this.
In this situation the user has to scroll down. The length
to which the user scrolls down is to be minimized.
 Case study
• Fabrics and Fall fashions