The problem of one-dimensionally cutting bars with alternative cutting lengths in the tubes rolling process

The input material of the tubes production process consists of steel bars that have to be cut into pieces before they are heated and rolled. In order to avoid waste of input material the cuts of the input material have to be optimised which is a classic one-dimensional cutting problem. A special characteristic of the tubes production is that the same output can be reached with different cutting lengths. Thus, the minimisation of input material gets more difficult and the known algorithms have to be adapted.