A new method for solving the corrugator trim problem is presented. This problem draws its name from the difficult task facing scheduling personnel in corrugator box plants each day: to determine the least-cost method of combining customer orders on the corrugator, where one of the major costs to...

This paper develops a one-dimensional cutting stock procedure which will minimize material wastage when a batch of small pieces are cut from several long pieces. The problem differs from the classical one-dimensional cutting stock problem in that the dimensions of the material to be cut are...

Plywood manufacture includes two fundamental stages. The first is to peel or separate logs into veneer sheets of different thicknesses. The second is to assemble veneer sheets into finished plywood products. At the first stage a decision must be made as to the number of different veneer...

A heuristic algorithm employing dynamic programming is presented for solving the two-dimensional cutting stock problem where all the small rectangles are of the same dimensions, but without the usual restriction that the cutting be done with "guillotine" cuts, i.e., cut which must be made in...

The process of converting a tree into finished lumber involves several interrelated steps. The two of greatest potential for improvement are cutting the felled tree into shorter logs (called bucking the tree) and sawing the bucked logs into lumber. Unlike previous work in the area, this paper...

This paper examines an important scheduling problem resulting from a new process for continuously casting steel. A master slab caster produces slabs which are wider than customer needs, and therefore, these must be ripped longitudinally at least once before they can be processed to a...

An optimization-based decision support system has been developed and used by NABISCO to manage complex problems involving facility selection, equipment location and utilization, and manufacture and distribution of products such as the familiar Ritz Crackers, Oreo Cookies, Fig Newtons, etc. (all...

Appropriate inspection is a significant component of production systems. In this paper a model is developed to determine the optimal placement of inspection stations within n-stage linear production systems. This model accommodates two types of inspector fallibility: "predictable," which implies...