A spatial scheduling system and its application to shipbuilding: DAS-CURVE

Spatial scheduling considers not only traditional scheduling constraints like resource capacity and due dates, but also dynamic spatial layout of the objects. Automation of spatial scheduling is particularly important when the spatial resources are critical bottleneck resources, as is the case in the shipbuilding industry. To develop a spatial scheduling expert system for shipbuilding, a methodology for spatial layout of polygonal objects within rectangular plates is first developed. This study is then extended to the methodology for spatial scheduling, including the time dimension. The methodology is applied to the scheduling of Daewoo shipbuilding to build a system DAS-CURVE. DAS-CURVE is successfully operational and its experimental performance is remarkable.