[54] METHOD FOR ALLOCATING RESOURCES AND PROCESSES FOR DESIGN AND PRODUCTION PLAN SCHEDULING
[75] Inventors: Katsumi Narimatsu, Kawasaki;
Shoichi Kqjima, Fujisawa, both of
Japan
[73] Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Kawasaki, Japan
[21] Appl. No.: 569,773
[22] Filed: Dec. 8, 1995
[30] Foreign Application Priority Data
Dec. 9, 1994 [JP] Japan 6-306516
Sep. 27, 1995 [JP] Japan 7-249746
[51] Int. CI.6 G06F 17/60; G06F 17/50
[52] U.S. CI 705/8; 205/7; 364/468.05;
364/468.06; 364/468.15; 364/474.24
[58] Field of Search 364/468.03, 468.05,
364/468.06, 468.15, 474.24; 395/207, 208;
705/7, 8
[56] References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
4,852,001 7/1989 Tsushima et al 364/401
5,408,663 4/1995 Miller 395/650
FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
6-35920 2/1994 Japan .
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Morton et al., "Shop Routing", Heuristic Scheduling Sys-
tems, Chapter 12, pp. 267-293, 1993.
English translation of relevant portions of PERT (Tomoaki
Sekine, PERT CPM, Nikka-girenn).
Primary Examiner—Gail O. Hayes
Assistant Examiner—-William N. Hughet
Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow,
Garrett & Dunner, L.L.P.
[57] ABSTRACT
A scheduling computer system optimizes the match between allocation of processes and resources. To do so, the system temporarily allocates the resources to a process selected based on the attributes of the resources and the processes, as well as the processing start and desired processing end times. In doing so, the system avoids selecting processes to which resources have been already allocated. The system also determines a resulting time value and a resulting fitness value based on the temporary allocation. Using the resulting time value and the resulting fitness value, the system determines the optimum resource for a particular process and allocates the resource to the process accordingly. The system also generates a scheduling chart illustrating the resource allocation.
26 Claims, 13 Drawing Sheets
