Effect of demand variations on steel bars cutting loss

The stock cutting process of construction steel bars causes trim loss. The demand assortment can vary considerably from job to job depending on the designs of building components and the progress of the projects. This research employs one-dimensional cutting stock problem model and conducts three sets of experiment on the variations of three parameters in order to discover the relationships between the demand variation and the cutting loss. The combination of the demanded lengths and numbers are altered to simulate many different decent jobs. Then, statistical techniques are applied to analyse the minimum cutting loss resulted from the tests. The results show that the less uniformity of the demand assortment produces more trim loss of the job. A highly unbalanced proportion of long demanded lengths also increases loss. The outcomes of this research are strategies to arrange effective cutting jobs, which will reduce the trim loss along the project timeline and consequently save the project cost.