The blog Deviant Abstraction points out that Lego’s (you know: building blocks that can be put into lots of different shapes) new Lego Factory has an interesting OR problem to solve: how can they put together packets of pieces so as to minimize waste when customers can order from more than 500,000 different pieces? Of course, OR needs to be used here. If anyone has a technical reference, I would love to see it! As someone who has a little more Lego than any mid-40s guy should have (and my two year old is not allowed to touch it! He can get his own!), the combining of two of my passions is appealing.
Here’s another article on this: http://news.com.com/Hackings+a+snap+in+Legoland/2100-1046_3-5865751.html
Looks like OR is not yet being used here:
http://www.deviant-abstraction.net/2006/05/19/lego-and-operations-research-follow-up/trackback/
One more set of pointers on this:
http://www.thelongtail.com/the_long_tail/2006/05/lego_how_they_d.html