Decision support tool for projects portfolio prototyping

Constraint Programming (CP) is an emergent software technology for declarative description and effective solving of large combinatorial problems especially in the area of projects portfolio prototyping. The paper deals with multi-resource and multi-criteria problem in which more than one shared renewable resource type may be required by manufacturing operation and the availability of each type is time-windows limited. The problem belongs to a class of NP-complete ones. The aim of the paper is to present a knowledge based and CP-driven approach to resource allocation conflicts resolution framework. Proposed framework stands behind a methodology aimed at task oriented DSS tolls designing. The Portfolio Project Prototyping System designed due to this methodology provides a prompt and interactive service to a set of routine queries stated both in straight and reverse way. Multiple illustrative examples are discussed. 1. INTERACTIVE TASK ORIENTED DECISION SUPPORT TOOLS Some industrial processes simultaneously produce different products using the same production resources. An optimal assignment of available resources to production steps in a multi-product job shop is often economically indispensable. The goal is to generate a plan/schedule of production orders for a given period of time while minimizing the cost that is equivalent to maximization of profit. In that context executives want to know how much a particular production order will cost, what resources are needed, what resources allocation can guarantee due time production order completion, and so on. So, a manager’s needs might be formulated in a form of standard, routine questions, such as: Does the production order can be completed before an arbitrary given deadline? What is the production completion time following assumed robots operation time? Is it possible to undertake a new production order under given (constrained in time) resources availability while guaranteeing disturbance-free execution of the already executed orders? What values and of what variables guarantee the production order will completed following assumed set of performance indexes? The problems standing behind of the quoted questions belong to the class of so called project scheduling ones. In turn, project scheduling can be defined as the process of allocating * Koszalin University of Technology, Dept. of Computer Science and Management ul. Śniadeckich 2, 75-354 Koszalin, Poland, zbigniew.banaszak@tu.koszalin.pl