A review of state-of-the-art methods for cutting stock problem optimisation shows that the current methods lead to near-optimum results for the instantaneous optimisation of trim loss. Further optimisation of this activity would not bring a considerable improvement. Therefore, the paper treats cutting stock as a continuous business process and not as an isolated activity. An exact method for a general one-dimensional cutting stock problem is presented and tested. The method is mainly suitable for smaller orders. It is then applied to continuous cutting and used to develop a method for assessing cutting costs in consecutive time periods. The modified method finds a good solution over the whole time-span, rather than just local optima. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT