Reel and sheet cutting at a paper mill

This work describes a real-world industrial problem of production planning and cutting optimization of reels and sheets, occurring at a Portuguese paper mill. It will focus on a particular module of the global problem, which is concerned with the determination of the width combinations of the items involved in the planning process: the main goal consists in satisfying an order of reels and sheets that must be cut from master reels. The width combination process will determine the quantity/weight of the master reels to be produced and their cutting patterns, in order to minimize waste, while satisfying production orders. A two-phase approach has been devised, naturally dependent on the technological process involved. Details of the models and solution methods are presented. Moreover some illustrative computational results are included.