Branch-and-price algorithms for the dual bin packing and maximum cardinality bin packing problem

There appear to be two versions of the Dual Bin Packing problem in the literature. In addition, one of the versions has a counterpart in the cutting stock literature, known as the Skiving Stock Problem. This paper outlines branch-andprice algorithms for both. We introduce combinatorial upper bounds and well-performing heuristics from the literature in the branch-and-price framework. Extensive computational tests indicate that the branch-and-price approach is superior to the existing branch-and-bound procedures, based on combinatorial bounds. The tests illustrate the influence of different problem characteristics on the computation time and the limits of the branch-and-price approach. 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.