Abstract: The invention provides a computerized method for optimization of efficiency of a production floor producing three-dimensional products using two-dimensional cutting machines, the method comprising: a. receiving input parameters comprising job data, due dates, product design data, production floor resources available and inventory data; b. maintaining in memory manufacturing rules and objectives; c. assigning relative weights of importance to the input parameters and to the manufacturing rules and objectives; d. computing, based on the input parameters, on the manufacturing rules and objectives and on the relative weights of importance, a production floor work plan schedule; e. determining whether the schedule is efficient in utilization of materials and resources available; if so, outputting the production floor work plan schedule; f. if the computed production floor schedule is determined to be inefficient, repeating steps (d) and (e) until it is determined to be efficient.

Abstract: The present invention enables the efficient use of resources in the manufacture of substantially two-dimensional elements through multi-dimensional resource optimization subject to rules and objectives. The invention may be embodied as a computer-based method, a computerized system that performs the method, or a machine readable storage medium containing instructions that when executed cause performance of the method using the computerized system. To fulfill customer orders, product design data, resource data, and rules and objective data are accessed to determine the efficient use of the resources, such as consumption of particular units of raw material and utilization of production stations. For a given set of customer orders, multiple scenarios of production plans are computed and recomputed until an efficient production plan is achieved. The production plan can be generated at a location remote from the manufacturing site, and it can then be sent in an automated fashion to the production stations.