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Practical Artificial Intelligence


Intelligence is an attribute that is often difficult to quantify. Humans can process information in a manner that has yet to be duplicated by machines. Still, many programmers continue to develop AI as a challenge, trying to mimic human behavior and responses as closely as possible. These studies have not generally produced practical results in the area of personal interaction. The ability of a programmed machine to interact with people or to decipher emotion is rudimentary at best.

Most human behavior is difficult to duplicate with a computer, but computers have advantages over human capabilities in regards to calculations and memory. Computers programmed to “think” strategically -- such as playing chess -- have surpassed the skills of their most talented human opponents. A computer is not more intelligent than a person, it just has the ability to foresee millions of consequences of it’s choices within minutes or even seconds. This ability is beyond the means of most people.

Arranging optimal schedules for production is a similar skill to playing chess because it requires cause and effect evaluation for hundreds of variables. This is one area in which AI offers a practical application.

Only a few software companies offer AI for practical business purposes because very few software programmers are capable of creating the genetic algorithms for the core of practical AI. Also, AI must be created for a specific function, not as a generic routine. For this reason, software companies can not sell one system thousands of times as their normal sales model requires. Due to it’s nature, only a few companies offer practical Artificial Intelligence that really works.







Scheduling ROI


There are quite a few ways to create a good ROI on your scheduling system. One of the most common areas companies consider when considering the purchase of a scheduling system is an ability to increase the overall effectiveness of the workcenters in the plant. Good systems will allow the sequence to be optimized and arrange the schedule so that the transition times between jobs is reduced, or so that increases in efficiency are achieved because the systems is making good decisions about product transitions. This can be one of the larges paybacks of return on investment.

Another good source of cost benefit is interaction with customer delivery and available to promise and capacity utilization. A good system will provide it’s users with a view into what can actually be achieved in relationship to customer requests. Many good systems will have an interface that can be used by the customer service department to do what if analysis into demand. We have also looked at systems that can show the schedulers and customer service department where there is available capacity. This can be a valuable tool that can be used to discount machine time. There is also something to be said for increased customer satisfaction. The ability to accurately forecast delivery can really mean success of failure in many business segments.

There are also a host of industry specific constraints that vary from business to business that can really improve the ability of a company to out perform its’ competition. Some examples of these types of constraints could be just in time delivers to satellite locations. Just in time deliveries to satellites can create inventory reduction in some businesses that allow the team to create and inventory reduction and increase operating capital. Another example might include routing and logistics considerations. There are companies that improve the bottom line by scheduling shipments to run in a more logical flow and reduce shipping expense. It can really pay to pick a flexible solutions provider that has the experience and the tool set to accomplish these types of systems.

We suggest taking a look at companies like Tuppas software or ShopfloorReporting.com. These companies have very agile architectures and they can build complex solutions that provide strong benefit affordably

If you're searching for more information on production scheduling you might want to check out the Production SCheduling Software Directory. The site offers information on scheduling software as well as information on APS.