An object-oriented tool-kit for building CSP decision support systems

This paper presents the framework required for an object-oriented computerized decision support tool-kit, which assists in minimizing the trim-loss resulting from cutting materials from stock pieces. The objective is to provide manufacturing enterprises with a user-friendly decision support system which allows them to perform sensitivity analyses using different cutting stock problem algorithms. This paper describes the conceptual architecture for the computerized tool-kit for one, two and three-dimensional cases. The paper explains the manner in which the one-dimensional case has been implemented, and describes the benefits of accessing a variety of solution methods, including a random re-packing algorithm developed by the authors.