Heuristic for the cutting and purchasing decisions of multiple metal coils

• A heuristic for the 2D guillotine cutting stock problem of multiple metal coils is presented.
• A subset of three-staged patterns is considered in generating the cutting plan.
• The method for using the algorithm to select the coil widths to purchase is described.
• The method for using the algorithm to optimize the segment lengths to order is described.
• Examples are used to illustrate the decision methods for different tasks.

This paper presents a heuristic algorithm for the rectangular two-dimensional cutting stock problem, where metal coils of multiple widths are divided into rectangular items with guillotine cuts. The cutting process contains two phases. Coils are cut into segments at the first phase and the segments into items at the second phase. A subset of three-staged patterns is considered in generating the cutting plan. The algorithm is used to accomplish the following tasks: (1) Generating cutting plans for the cutting process; (2) Selecting the coil widths to purchase; (3) Optimizing the segment lengths to order. Benchmark instances are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm in improving material utilization, and examples are used to illustrate the decision methods for different tasks.