Planning of a make-to-order production process in the printing industry

Offset printing is a common method to produce large amounts of printed matter. We consider a real-world offset printing process that is used to imprint customer-specific designs on napkin pouches. The production equipment used gives rise to various technological constraints. The planning problem consists of allocating designs to printing-plate slots such that the given customer demand for each design is fulfilled, all technological and organizational constraints are met and the total overproduction and setup costs are minimized. We formulate this planning problem as a mixed-binary linear program, and we develop a multi-pass matching-based savings heuristic. We report computational results for a set of problem instances devised from real-world data.

Three-dimensional printing for perioperative planning of complex aortic arch surgery

Purpose In this study, we show the use of three-dimensional printing models for preoperative planning of surgery for patients with complex aortic arch anomalies. Description A 70-year-old man with an extensively arteriosclerotic aneurysm reaching from the ascending aorta to the descending aorta was referred to our center for complete aortic arch replacement. We visualized and reconstructed computed tomography data of the patient and fabricated a flexible three-dimensional model of the aortic arch including the aneurysm. Evaluation This model was very helpful for the preoperative decision making and planning of the frozen elephant trunk procedure owing to the exact and lifelike illustration of the native aortic arch. Conclusions Three-dimensional models are helpful in preoperative planning and postoperative evaluation of frozen elephant trunk procedures in patients with complex aortic anatomy.