Globalization of competition is forcing all industries to continually reduce costs and develop better products and services in order to sustain a competitive advantage in a changing business environment. New concepts such as lean manufacturing have been introduced to address the above challenges. Enormous opportunities of saving by reducing waste in various areas in manufacturing can be utilized through simple management tools.
This project aims to reduce waste in manufacturing processes that involve cutting processes. The one-dimensional cutting stock or trim problem arises in cutting short units from long ones. In this project, the objectives are to fill demand with as little stock as possible, to reduce trim waste.
An optimization model has been developed as a solution to a specific industrial problem in the Aluminum industry. This was achieved using optimization technique (integer linear programming). This model ensures optimal allocation of resources and reduces waste to minimum (trim loss). Dedicated software for this problem has been developed to provide a user-friendly interface.
The model was applied in a real case at National Aluminum & Profile Co. (NAPCO) in Nablus. The initial results and feedback proved the usefulness of the proposed model and the possibility of customizing the solution to other problem domains.