Linear Programming for a Cutting Problemin the Wood Processing Industry– A Case Study

In this paper the authors present a case study from the woodprocessingindustry. It focuses on a cutting process in which material fromstock is cut down in order to provide the items required by the customersin the desired qualities, sizes, and quantities. In particular, two aspectsmake this cutting process special. Firstly, the cutting process is stronglyinterdependent with a preceding handling process, which, consequently,cannot be planned independently. Secondly, if the trim loss is of a certainminimum size, it can be returned into stock and used as input tosubsequent cutting processes. In order to reduce the cost of the cuttingprocess, a decision support tool has been developed which incorporates alinear programming model as a central feature. The model is described indetail, and experience from the application of the tool is reported...