Cutting Stock Problem
The cutting-stock problem is an optimization problem, or more specifically, an integer linear programming problem. It arises from many applications in industry. Imagine that you work in a paper mill and you have a number of rolls of paper of fixed width waiting to be cut, yet different customers want different numbers of rolls of various-sized widths. How are you going to cut the rolls so that you minimize the waste (amount of left-overs)?
Solving this problem to optimality can be economically significant: a difference of 1% for a modern paper machine can be worth more than one million USD per year.
Read more about Cutting Stock Problem: Formulation and Solution Approaches, Illustration of One-dimensional Cutting-stock Problem, Classification, Cutting-stock Problem in Paper, Film and Metal Industries, History
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