Heuristic-based approach for an industrial three-dimensional layout problem

In this paper, we consider a particular three-dimensional layout problem in a steel sheet manufacturing workshop. The products are laid in a machine according to packs and stacks. Constraints determine if a product or pack can be laid above another product or another pack. For this NP-complete problem, we propose two kinds of method: heuristic method (based on enumeration) and combination between heuristic and metaheuristic. The proposed methods are validated and compared on real instances. The results are of good quality.