An improved typology of cutting and packing problems

The number of publications in the area of Cutting and Packing (C&P) has increased considerably over the last two decades.The typology of C&P problems introduced by Dyckhoff [Dyckhoff, H., 1990. A typology of cutting and packingproblems. European Journal of Operational Research 44, 145–159] initially provided an excellent instrument for the organisationand categorisation of existing and new literature. However, over the years also some deficiencies of this typologybecame evident, which created problems in dealing with recent developments and prevented it from being accepted moregenerally. In this paper, the authors present an improved typology, which is partially based on Dyckhoff’s original ideas,but introduces new categorisation criteria, which define problem categories different from those of Dyckhoff. Furthermore,a new, consistent system of names is suggested for these problem categories. Finally, the practicability of the new scheme isdemonstrated by using it as a basis for a categorisation of the C&P literature from the years between 1995 and 2004...