Development of Optimal Cutting Plan using Linear Programming Tools and MATLAB Algorithm

Cutting stock problems are faced in various industries and manufacturing set-ups because of the production of generic raw materials in a few standard sizes of large dimensions being economical for mass production concerns. The cutting process of larger stock to meet customers' orders/market demand may have inevitable impact on company's profit earnings besides scrap level. This paper focuses on the selection of appropriate stock and then to cut it optimally for further processing based on requirement of the part(s) being manufactured in order to meet customers' demand in a cost effective manner. Two software tools Archer Tool (LP Package) and LINGO8.0 have been used to solve the linear/mathematical program for optimization of sheet metal cutting (blanking) plan in conjunction with graphical software tool for cutting stock optimization ITEMIZER9. An algorithm has been developed in MATLAB for generating different cutting patterns with/without constraint of fibre direction/sheet orientation. A comparative analysis of feasible plans obtained through the LP model and the MATLAB code with various constraints is also presented. Furthermore, validation of the results from LP model and MATLAB algorithm has been performed using the published results of a known case in literature and comparing the best feasible (optimum) plans from all approaches. It is concluded that the approaches developed in this work can successfully be applied for obtaining optimal cutting plans and solving constrained cutting stock problems by keeping the trim loss at a minimum level.

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