The Multiperiod Cutting Stock Problem arises embedded in the production planning and programming in many industries which have a cutting process as an important stage. Ordered items have different due date over a finite planning horizon. A large scale integer linear optimization model is proposed. The model makes possible to anticipate or not the production of items. Unused objects in inventory in a period become available to the next period, added to new inventory, which are acquired or produced by the own company. The mathematical model's objective considers the waste in the cutting process, and costs for holding objects and final items. The simplex method with column generation was specialized to solve the linear relaxation. Some preliminary computational experiments showed that the multiperiod model could obtain effective gains when compared with the lot-for-lot solution, which is typically used in practice. However, in real world problems, the fractional solution is useless. So, additionally, two rounding procedures are developed to determine integer solutions for multiperiod cutting stock problems. Such procedures are based on a rolling horizon scheme, which roughly means, find an integer solution only for the first period, since this is the solution to be, in fact, carried out. Finally, we conclude that the proposed model for multiperiod cutting stock problems allows flexibility on analyzing a solution to be put in practice. The multiperiod cutting problem can be a tool that provides the decision maker a wide view of the problem and it may help him/her on making decisions.
cutting stock problem; linear and integer optimization; column generation
