Automating production planning and control in pallet manufacturing – A case study

Abstract

In this work, we investigate and formalize the production planning for a highly automated pallet production and provide a solution approach. According to the final pallet to be produced, in pallet production boards have to be cut and stacked in order to fulfil the demand at the assembly line. The overall production problem primarily consists of a cutting stock problem with a constraining open stack problem. They are mathematically modelled and solved using a heuristic approach that aims at minimizing the waste of material. Various different approaches to generate the possible cutting patterns are introduced based on the chronology of orders. In a next step, a feasible production sequence of the cutting patterns is computed. Furthermore, the number of generated patterns for the cutting stock problem and its impact on the feasibility of the production sequence as well as on the solution quality is investigated.