Nesting planning based on production priorities and technological efficiency

The purpose and contribution of this work is in developing a methodology for integrating nesting technology with production priorities. Production priorities are based on a due-date (e.g. from an MRP-II program) and other management factors. A good nesting plan requires high raw material utilization. Economic operation demands low set-up frequency between nesting plans. These three factors usually conflict. We present here a parametric multi-objective mathematical programming formulation that takes account of these factors and their tradeoffs, and suggests an optimal solution to the problem.