A Hierarchical Approach for Cutting Stock Problems that Maximizes Yield and Minimizes Overgrading

摘要

Due to economies of scale, steel is produced in sizes much larger than the sizes ordered by the customers. At Bethlehem Steel Corporation, a variety of steel products, such as, slabs, plates, and bars, are cut at primary saws (hotsaws) to long lengths as they leave the producing facility. The generation of cutting patterns for a hotsaw in real-time (maximum three seconds / bar pattern) in order to take advantage of the actual length of the product leaving a mill, as well as, to maximize hotsaw cuts without impacting mill productivity is discussed in Vasko et.al.