Cutting and packing problems have been widely studied in the last decades, mainly due to the variety of industrial applications where the problems emerge. This paper presents an overview of the solution approaches that have been proposed for solving two‐dimensional rectangular cutting and packing problems. The main emphasis of this work is on two distinct problems that belong to the cutting and packing problem family. The first problem aims to place onto an object the maximum‐profit subset of items, that is, output maximization, while the second one aims to place all the items using as few identical objects as possible, that is, input minimization. The objective of this paper is not to be exhaustive but to provide a solid grasp on two‐dimensional rectangular cutting and packing problems by describing their most important solution approaches.

Due to the current European economic stagnation and to face the increasing competition from emerging economies, significant changes in the European furniture industry need to be undertaken. Several institutions have produced reports showing that the European furniture industry must innovate the products, the production processes, the promotion strategies and the organizational structure in order to attain flexibility and productivity. The most relevant factor for the decrease in market share in the European furniture industry is the production cost, mainly due to labour and raw materials costs. The proposed information system aims to reduce the waste of raw materials generated in the production process, optimizing their purchase and consumption, boosting corporate profitability and sustainability