Optimization Based Heuristic Approaches for Solving an Integrated One-dimensional Cutting Stock-Transportation Problem

In this work, the integration of the one-dimensional cutting stock problem with multiple cutting facilities and the transportation problem was formulated mathematically as a large-scale discrete optimization problem. Benders partitioning approach and the column-generation technique with the direct method and the proposed heuristic method for solving corresponding integer programming (IP) were developed into three approaches and were used to solve a set of various sizes test problems within a controllable computation time. The computation time and the relative-difference percentage between the lower and upper bounds are criterions. The results indicated that the approach based on the column-generation technique with the proposed heuristic method is the most efficient method for solving this studied large-scale problems. Hence, this approach could be used in practical manners; to manage both production and transportation plans simultaneously.