Modeling fabric cutting scheduling as mixed integer programming

There are four major production processes in apparel manufacturing: cutting, sewing, ironing, and packing. Usually, the sewing process is the bottleneck for most apparel factories. Sufficient amount of work-in-process from cutting department must be provided in time to prevent the sewing operation from idleness. Scheduling a cutting operation problem is similar to a two-dimensional bin packing problem. The operations on cutting tables can be represented by a two-dimensional Gantt chart. The horizontal axis and vertical axis of the Gantt chart represent the time line and the location on the length of the cutting table, respectively. In addition, the cutting operation can be represented by a rectangle, which is placed on the two-dimensional Gantt chart. A mixed integer programming model is proposed in this study to solve such a problem with the objective of minimizing makespan.