Proposal of a Gantt Chart System Which Supports Heuristic Decision Making

Abstract

Recently domestic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are in a much more serious situation． The main factors are quick delivery, variable models in variable quantities and the assurance of human resources． For small-sized manufacturing enterprises, speedy planning operation and progress management operation for variable models in variable quantities are essential． Although there are many kinds of production planning software for production planning, they are not used in SMEs． Therefore, we propose a tool which supports heuristics scheduling by directly inputting to a Gantt chart with no use of conventional approaches． Since the prototype system can intuitively understand the load status of each machine and the overall production plan, it is possible to formulate a highly accurate production plan． Furthermore, we have developed a system for visualizing the progress by sharing the Gantt chart (work instructions) between the office and the work site． In this research, we report the design contents and implement of the prototype system．