An Evolutionary Algorithm for solving the Two-Dimensional Irregular Shape Packing Problem combined with the Knapsack Problem

This work presents an evolutionary algorithm to solve a joint problem of the Packing Problem and the Knapsack Problem, where the objective is to place items (with shape, value and weight) in a container (defined by its shape and capacity), maximizing the container's value, without intersections

An anytime tree search algorithm for two-dimensional two- and three-staged guillotine packing problems

[libralesso_anytime_2020] proposed an anytime tree search algorithm for the 2018 ROADEF/EURO challenge glass cutting problem (https://www.roadef.org/challenge/2018/en/index.php). The resulting program was ranked first among 64 participants. In this article, we generalize it and show that it is not only effective for the specific problem it was originally designed for, but is also very competitive and even returns state-of-the-art solutions on a large variety of Cutting and Packing problems from the literature. We adapted the algorithm for two-dimensional Bin Packing, Multiple Knapsack, and Strip Packing Problems, with two- or three-staged exact or non-exact guillotine cuts, the orientation of the first cut being imposed or not, and with or without item rotation. The combination of efficiency, ability to provide good solutions fast, simplicity and versatility makes it particularly suited for industrial applications, which require quickly developing algorithms implementing several business-specific constraints. The algorithm is implemented in a new software package called PackingSolver

Container Loading Problems: A State-of-the-Art Review

Container loading is a pivotal function for operating supply chains efficiently. Underperformance results in unnecessary costs (e.g. cost of additional containers to be shipped) and in an unsatisfactory customer service (e.g. violation of deadlines agreed to or set by clients). Thus, it is not surprising that container loading problems have been dealt with frequently in the operations research literature. It has been claimed though that the proposed approaches are of limited practical value since they do not pay enough attention to constraints encountered in practice.In this paper, a review of the state-of-the-art in the field of container loading will be given. We will identify factors which - from a practical point of view - need to be considered when dealing with container loading problems and we will analyze whether and how these factors are represented in methods for the solution of such problems. Modeling approaches, as well as exact and heuristic algorithms will be reviewed. This will allow for assessing the practical relevance of the research which has been carried out in the field. We will also mention several issues which have not been dealt with satisfactorily so far and give an outlook on future research opportunities

Moldable Items Packing Optimization

This research has led to the development of two mathematical models to optimize the problem of packing a hybrid mix of rigid and moldable items within a three-dimensional volume. These two developed packing models characterize moldable items from two perspectives: (1) when limited discrete configurations represent the moldable items and (2) when all continuous configurations are available to the model. This optimization scheme is a component of a lean effort that attempts to reduce the lead-time associated with the implementation of dynamic product modifications that imply packing changes. To test the developed models, they are applied to the dynamic packing changes of Meals, Ready-to-Eat (MREs) at two different levels: packing MRE food items in the menu bags and packing menu bags in the boxes. These models optimize the packing volume utilization and provide information for MRE assemblers, enabling them to preplan for packing changes in a short lead-time. The optimization results are validated by running the solutions multiple times to access the consistency of solutions. Autodesk Inventor helps visualize the solutions to communicate the optimized packing solutions with the MRE assemblers for training purposes

Algorithms for cutting and packing problems

Orientador: Flávio Keidi MiyazawaTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: Problemas de Corte e Empacotamento são, em sua maioria, NP-difíceis e não existem algoritmos exatos de tempo polinomial para tais se for considerado P ¿ NP. Aplicações práticas envolvendo estes problemas incluem a alocação de recursos para computadores; o corte de chapas de ferro, de madeira, de vidro, de alumínio, peças em couro, etc.; a estocagem de objetos; e, o carregamento de objetos dentro de contêineres ou caminhões-baú. Nesta tese investigamos problemas de Corte e Empacotamento NP-difíceis, nas suas versões bi- e tridimensionais, considerando diversas restrições práticas impostas a tais, a saber: que permitem a rotação ortogonal dos itens; cujos cortes sejam feitos por uma guilhotina; cujos cortes sejam feitos por uma guilhotina respeitando um número máximo de estágios de corte; cujos cortes sejam não-guilhotinados; cujos itens tenham demanda (não) unitária; cujos recipientes tenham tamanhos diferentes; cujos itens sejam representados por polígonos convexos e não-convexos (formas irregulares); cujo empacotamento respeite critérios de estabilidade para corpos rígidos; cujo empacotamento satisfaça uma dada ordem de descarregamento; e, cujos empacotamentos intermediários e final tenham seu centro de gravidade dentro de uma região considerada "segura". Para estes problemas foram propostos algoritmos baseados em programação dinâmica; modelos de programação inteira; técnicas do tipo branch-and-cut; heurísticas, incluindo as baseadas na técnica de geração de colunas; e, meta-heurísticas como o GRASP. Resultados teóricos também foram obtidos. Provamos uma questão em aberto levantada na literatura sobre cortes não-guilhotinados restritos a um conjunto de pontos. Uma extensiva série de testes computacionais considerando instâncias reais e várias outras geradas de forma aleatória foram realizados com os algoritmos desenvolvidos. Os resultados computacionais, sendo alguns deles comparados com a literatura, comprovam a validade dos algoritmos propostos e a sua aplicabilidade prática para resolver os problemas investigadosAbstract: Several versions of Cutting and Packing problems are considered NP-hard and, if we consider that P ¿ NP, we do not have any exact polynomial algorithm for solve them. Practical applications arises for such problems and include: resources allocation for computers; cut of steel, wood, glass, aluminum, etc.; packing of objects; and, loading objects into containers and trucks. In this thesis we investigate Cutting and Packing problems that are NP-hard considering theirs two- and three-dimensional versions, and subject to several practical constraints, that are: that allows the items to be orthogonally rotated; whose cuts are guillotine type; whose cuts are guillotine type and performed in at most k stages; whose cuts are non-guillotine type; whose items have varying and unit demand; whose bins are of variable sizes; whose items are represented by convex and non-convex polygons (irregular shapes); whose packing must satisfy the conditions for static equilibrium of rigid bodies; whose packing must satisfy an order to unloading; and, whose intermediaries and resultant packing have theirs center of gravity inside a safety region; Such cutting and packing problems were solved by dynamic programming algorithms; integer linear programming models; branch-and-cut algorithms; several heuristics, including those ones based on column generation approaches, and metaheuristics like GRASP. Theoretical results were also provided, so a recent open question arised by literature about non-guillotine patterns restricted to a set of points was demonstrated. We performed an extensive series of computational experiments for algorithms developed considering several instances presented in literature and others generated at random. These results, some of them compared with the literature, validate the approaches proposed and suggest their applicability to deal with practical situations involving the problems here investigatedDoutoradoDoutor em Ciência da Computaçã

Genetic algorithms for the scheduling in additive manufacturing

[EN] Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are introduced to tackle the packing problem. The scheduling in Additive Manufacturing (AM) is also dealt with to set up a managed market, called “Lonja3D”. This will enable to determine an alternative tool through the combinatorial auctions, wherein the customers will be able to purchase the products at the best prices from the manufacturers. Moreover, the manufacturers will be able to optimize the production capacity and to decrease the operating costs in each case.This research has been partially financed by the project: “Lonja de Impresión 3D para la Industria 4.0 y la Empresa Digital (LONJA3D)” funded by the Regional Government of Castile and Leon and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF, FEDER) with grant VA049P17Castillo-Rivera, S.; De Antón, J.; Del Olmo, R.; Pajares, J.; López-Paredes, A. (2020). Genetic algorithms for the scheduling in additive manufacturing. International Journal of Production Management and Engineering. 8(2):59-63. https://doi.org/10.4995/ijpme.2020.12173OJS596382Ahsan, A., Habib, A., Khoda, B. (2015). Resource based process planning for additive manufacturing. Computer-Aided Design, 69, 112-125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cad.2015.03.006Araújo, L., Özcan, E., Atkin, J., Baumers, M., Tuck, C., Hague, R. (2015). Toward better build volume packing in additive manufacturing: classification of existing problems and benchmarks. 26th Annual International Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium - an Additive Manufacturing Conference, 401-410.Berman, B. (2012). 3-D printing: The new industrial revolution. Business Horizons, 55: 155-162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2011.11.003Canellidis, V., Dedoussis, V., Mantzouratos, N., Sofianopoulou, S. (2006). Preprocessing methodology for optimizing stereolithography apparatus build performance. Computers in Industry, 57, 424-436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2006.02.004Chergui, A., Hadj-Hamoub, K., Vignata, F. (2018). Production scheduling and nesting in additive manufacturing. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 126, 292-301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2018.09.048Demirel, E., Özelkan, E.C., Lim, C. (2018). Aggregate planning with flexibility requirements profile. International Journal of Production Economics, 202, 45-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2018.05.001Fera, M., Fruggiero, F., Lambiase, A., Macchiaroli, R., Todisco, V. (2018). A modified genetic algorithm for time and cost optimization of an additive manufacturing single-machine scheduling. International Journal of Industrial Engineering Computations, 9, 423-438. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.ijiec.2018.1.001Hopper, E., Turton, B. (1997). Application of genetic algorithms to packing problems - A Review. Proceedings of the 2nd Online World Conference on Soft Computing in Engineering Design and Manufacturing, Springer Verlag, London, 279-288. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0427-8_30Ikonen, I., Biles, W.E., Kumar, A., Wissel, J.C., Ragade, R.K. (1997). A genetic algorithm for packing three-dimensional non-convex objects having cavities and holes. ICGA, 591-598.Kim, K.H., Egbelu, P.J. (1999). Scheduling in a production environment with multiple process plans per job. International Journal of Production Research, 37, 2725-2753. https://doi.org/10.1080/002075499190491Lawrynowicz, A. (2011). Genetic algorithms for solving scheduling problems in manufacturing systems. Foundations of Management, 3(2), 7-26. https://doi.org/10.2478/v10238-012-0039-2Li, Q., Kucukkoc, I., Zhang, D. (2017). Production planning in additive manufacturing and 3D printing. Computers and Operations Research, 83, 157-172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cor.2017.01.013Milošević, M., Lukić, D., Đurđev, M., Vukman, J., Antić, A. (2016). Genetic Algorithms in Integrated Process Planning and Scheduling-A State of The Art Review. Proceedings in Manufacturing Systems, 11(2), 83-88.Pour, M.A., Zanardini, M., Bacchetti, A., Zanoni, S. (2016). Additive manufacturing impacts on productions and logistics systems. IFAC, 49(12), 1679-1684. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2016.07.822Wilhelm, W.E., Shin, H.M. (1985). Effectiveness of Alternate Operations in a Flexible Manufacturing System. International Journal of Production Research, 23(1), 65-79. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207548508904691Xirouchakis, P., Kiritsis, D., Persson, J.G. (1998). A Petri net Technique for Process Planning Cost Estimation. Annals of the CIRP, 47(1), 427-430. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0007-8506(07)62867-4Zhang, Y., Bernard, A., Gupta, R.K., Harik, R. (2014). Evaluating the design for additive manufacturing: a process planning perspective. Procedia CIRP, 21, 144-150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2014.03.17

Shipping Configuration Optimization with Topology-Based Guided Local Search for Irregular Shaped Shipments

Manufacturer that uses containers to ship products always works to optimize the space inside the containers. Container loading problems (CLP) are widely encountered in forms of raw material flow and handling, product shipments, warehouse management, facility floor planning, as well as strip-packing nesting problems.Investigations and research conducted two decades ago were logistic orientated, on the basis of the empirical approaches