A comparative review of zero-waste fashion design thinking and operational research on cutting and packing optimisation

This paper provides a review aimed at comparing cutting and packing (C&P) research in the textile industry and the area of zero-waste fashion design (ZWFD). Both research domains seek to minimise waste material while approaching the problem from very different perspectives. The C&P research investigates the use of mathematical and computational techniques for minimising material waste in the marker planning problem, while the ZWFD provides creative pattern making solutions for the same problem. A systematic literature review was performed based on content and bibliometric analysis of 22 papers published in peer-reviewed journals from 2010 until 2021. The paper maps the research direction of both the C&P and ZWFD as an opportunity to stimulate further research in the future encouraged by the integration of both areas to address the zero-waste fashion designs’ manufacturability problem by incorporating the fashion design process with the C&P optimisation algorithm design process.