Planner insight for flat sheet industries

1. A method of generating optimal trimming patterns for trimming raw rolls and/or sheets for fulfillment of a flat sheet stock and/or customer orders that comprises:

(a) receiving customer order specifications;

(b) receiving primary machine specifications;

(c) receiving secondary machine specifications;

(d) receiving warehouse inventory specifications;

(e) receiving trade constraints;

(f) generating solutions for the following parameters (i) order quantity fulfillment, (ii) a primary cutting pattern for the primary machine, (iii) a secondary cutting pattern for the secondary machine, and (iv) inventory details, wherein the solutions are generated with consideration of the received trade constraints;

(g) executing a batch and generating suggestions;

(h) generating modified solutions for the parameters in step (f) using revised trade constraints derived from the suggestions generated in (g) wherein steps (f), (g) and (h) are executed with a Knapsack algorithm that employs a column generation approach and wherein the Knapsack algorithm has an objective function for minimizing of trim loss and has an objective which includes a duality of both upper and lower bound demand constraints with information related to trim loss and optimal usage; and

(i) operating a cutting apparatus by:

receiving a reel or sheet of material to be cut;

configuring the cutting apparatus with the modified solutions generated in step (h); and

operating the configured cutting apparatus to cut the reel or sheet of material into a plurality of smaller reels or sheets.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein (i) the order quantity fulfillment comprises fulfilling must make orders within tolerance with respect to roll quantity, (ii) the primary cutting pattern for the primary machine comprises arrangements of slitters or knives for different roll sizes which includes original order roll size or parent roll size for secondary processing, (iii) the secondary cutting pattern for the secondary machine comprises different slitter or knives positions for original order roll sizes generated from parent rolls by the primary cutting pattern, and (iv) the inventory details comprise available roll sizes.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the trade constraints comprise allowed over or under make quantity for each roll size or for entire order and overall allowed over or under run roll quantity for the batch.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the customer order specifications are selected from the group consisting of roll dimensions, grades, dates of shipments, customer specific needs, roll quantities and tolerances.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the primary machine specifications are selected from the group consisting of deckle size, number of slitters, roll weight handling, minimum roll size, maximum roll size, number of roll outs and additional loss needs to consider, type of winder, and mixtures thereof.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the secondary machine specifications is selected from the group consisting of number of backstands which load the rolls, number of stack outs, deckle sizes, number of slitters, roll weight handling, minimum roll size, maximum roll size, number of roll outs and additional losses needs to be considered, type of rewinder, and mixtures thereof.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the warehouse inventory specifications comprise diameter/length of rolls and maximum roll quantity.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the suggestions generated in step (g) are selected from the group consisting of (i) identifying roll size with additional quantity beyond tolerance, (ii) identifying roll size with minimal reduction of quantity beyond tolerance, (iii) identifying roll size which can be removed from the current batch to improve the overall efficiency (iv) identifying different inventory sizes and roll quantities, and mixtures thereof.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the modified solutions generated in step (h) comprise options to a user to override initially received trade constraints or inventory specifications.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving defects related information for the raw rolls and/or sheets in the warehouse inventory.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the flat sheet stock comprises paper, rubber, plastic or metal.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the objective function is defined as minimization trim loss and not of minimization of total number of rolls used for the batch.

13. A trimming system which comprises:

a computer device that:

(a) receives customer order specifications;

(b) receives primary machine specifications;

(c) receives secondary machine specifications;

(d) receives warehouse inventory specifications;

(e) receives trade constraints;

(f) generates solutions for the following parameters (i) order quantity fulfillment, (ii) a primary cutting pattern for the primary machine, (iii) a secondary cutting pattern for the secondary machine, and (iv) inventory details, wherein the solutions are generated with consideration of the received trade constraints;

(g) executes a batch and generates suggestions;

(h) generates modified solutions for the parameters in step (f) using revised trade constraints derived from the suggestions generated in (g) wherein the computer device is configured to executed steps (f), (g) and (h) with a Knapsack algorithm that employs a column generation approach and wherein the Knapsack algorithm has an objective function for minimizing of trim loss and has an objective which includes a duality of both upper and lower bound demand constraints with information related to trim loss and optimal usage; and

a cutting apparatus for cutting a reel or sheet of material into a plurality of smaller reels or sheets of material, wherein the cutting apparatus is configured to receive the modified solutions generated in step (h).

14. The trimming system of claim 13 wherein the cutting apparatus is selected from the group consisting of winder, rewinder, sheeter, trimmer, cutter and mixtures thereof.

15. The trimming system of claim 14 wherein the cutting apparatus comprises a plurality of adjustable slitters or knives that cut a wide sheet into a plurality of sheets of predetermined widths.

16. The trimming system of claim 14 wherein the material comprises paper, rubber, plastic or metal.

17. The trimming system of claim 13 wherein the objective function is defined as minimization trim loss and not of minimization of total number of rolls used for the batch.