Heuristics for sequencing cutting patterns

The Australian glass industry faces a problem in sequencing the cutting patterns produced from the solution of the trim loss problem. Usually the different pieces cut from the patterns are queued in separate stacks and only removed when all patterns involving that stack are sequenced. In practice it is desirable to achieve as small a stack queue as possible to minimize handling and also space problems. Two heuristics are suggested for producing an efficient sequence. Computational experience is reported for sequencing two distinct groups of patterns.