Section: New Results

Packing and Cutting Problems

The two-dimensional knapsack problem consists in packing a set of small rectangular items into a given large rectangle while maximizing the total reward associated with selected items. In [3], we restrict our attention to packings that emanate from a k-stage guillotine-cut process. We introduce a generic model where a knapsack solution is represented by a flow in a directed acyclic hypergraph. This hypergraph model derives from a forward labeling dynamic programming recursion that enumerates all non-dominated feasible cutting patterns. To reduce the hypergraph size, we make use of further dominance rules and a filtering procedure based on Lagrangian reduced costs fixing of hyperarcs. Our hypergraph model is (incrementally) extended to account for explicit bounds on the number of copies of each item. Our exact forward labeling algorithm is numerically compared to solving the max-cost flow model in the base hyper-graph with side constraints to model production bounds. Benchmarks are reported on instances from the literature and on datasets derived from a real-world application.

Also we consider a variant of two-dimensional guillotine cutting-stock problem that arises when different bills of order (or batches) are considered consecutively. The raw material leftover of the last cutting pattern is not counted as waste as it can be reused for cutting the next batch. The objective is thus to maximize the length of the leftover. In [21] we propose a diving heuristic based on a Dantzig-Wolfe reformulation solved by column generation in which the pricing problem is solved using dynamic programming (DP). This DP generates so-called non-proper columns, i.e. cutting patterns that cannot participate in a feasible integer solution of the problem. We show how to adapt the standard diving heuristic to this “non-proper” case while keeping its effectiveness. We also introduce the partial enumeration technique, which is designed to reduce the number of non-proper patterns in the solution space of the dynamic program. This technique helps to strengthen the lower bounds obtained by column generation and improve the quality of solutions found by the diving heuristic. Computational results are reported and compared on classical benchmarks from the literature as well as on new instances inspired from industrial data. According to these results, proposed diving algorithms outperform constructive and evolutionary heuristics.