Interactive Scheduling of a Generalized Flowshop. Part I: Success Through Evolutionary Development

The history of the application of interactive computer techniques to the problem of production scheduling is a compendium of short lived successes and failures. This article is a case history which describes the development of an interactive system being used to schedule the starting dates for the overhaul of military aircraft at a Naval Aircraft Rework Facility. The three parts of this serialized article will each describe different aspects of the development of this system. Part I concerns itself with the historical causes of failure in this type of development effort, and the general steps taken to overcome these causes. Subsequent parts will describe the computer software developed and the measurements of system effectiveness required to gain complete acceptance of the system by management.