A Progressive Heuristic Search Algorithm for the Cutting Stock Problem

This paper presents a new variant of the A class algorithms for solving the known one dimensional cutting stock problem in a card board factory where the objective is to minimise the useless remaining of a continuous cardboard surface The algorithm limits the number of nodes in the tree search by using a bound criterion based on the prob lem restrictions The process of computing the solution is achieved at several stages obtaining a complete non optimal solution at each stage and improving the response as long as new stages are executed The nal stage returns the optimal solution The proposed approach allows for a solution at anytime in the process resolution and also the re nement of the solution as more time is given to the algorithm In this way if a non optimal solution is satisfactory enough for the factory the process can be interrupted at that time The computational performance of the al gorithm indicates the e ectiveness of the algorithm for solving practical one dimensional cutting stock problems Additionally the experimental results show the important money savings achieved for the factory