Beat the Scheduler

a daily corrugator puzzle · 110" machine · one grade · three knives · 7" of chute

#1streak 0

Today's orders

click an order to put it on the next empty knife · one order per knife · due by end of shift 1, 2 or 3

Paper on the floor

the rolls you actually have today · feet remaining · using a width you can't finish leaves a butt roll

Build a pattern pick a web, fill the knives, set the run

run length 5,000 ft

Your schedule

runs top to bottom · a web change costs more going up than down · each CI is a setup

nothing scheduled yet

How to play

Eight orders of one board grade are due today. The paper on the floor is what it is — some widths you have plenty of, some you don't. A pattern is a web width plus up to three orders, one on each cutoff knife, with however many outs of each fit across. The physics are the real ones: the used width can't exceed the web; the trim can't exceed 7" a side or the chute jams; the score lines across all the outs have to fit on three shafts, two inches apart, one depth per shaft; one order per knife. The run length is how many feet you run that pattern before the shear cuts across the web and the next pattern starts.

You're scored on three things the plant is scored on: trim (paper you bought and threw away), hours (run time plus a setup for every CI plus a penalty for web changes — going up is worse than going down), and on-time delivery (every order complete, within 90–110% of its quantity, before its shift ends). The solver builds its own schedule from the same orders and the same paper. Beat it on two of three and you win the day. The run animation at the bottom is the payoff: every rectangle is a sheet.