Scheduling apparatus, scheduling method, and computer program

A scheduling method automatically making a production plan or a distribution plan on a computer by mathematical programming by using information of each of

• a product order indicating contents of an order of a product,
• a process which is processing executed in a course of production or distribution of the product,
• a resource which is a human resource and a material resource used in the process, and
• a product class which is identification information for distinguishing orders for which processes executed in the course of production or distribution of the product, an order of execution of the processes, and resources used respectively in the processes are same, as one set from others, the scheduling method comprising:
• a registration step of registering the resources and the processes, the processes and the product classes, and the product classes and the product orders in mutual association in a recording medium;
• a construction step of constructing variables including a start time and end time of each product order/each process/each resource as decision variables used when formulating an objective function and a constraint expression according to the mathematical programming based on the product classes, the processes, the resources, and the product orders which are mutually associated by the registration step;
• a constraint setting step of setting contents of the constraint expression based on an input operation of identification information by a user to a selection input field for inputting at least one piece of identification information of the product classes, the processes, and the resources which are mutually associated by the registration step;
• an object setting step of setting contents of the objective function based on an input operation of identification information and an object by the user to a selection input field for inputting identification information of the product classes and the processes which are mutually associated by the registration step and an object by the objective function;
• a constraint expression formulating step of formulating the constraint expression by using the variables constructed by the construction step based on the product classes, the processes, the resources, and the product orders which are mutually associated by the registration step and the contents of the constraint expression set by the constraint setting step;
• an objective function formulating step of formulating the objective function by using the variables constructed by the construction step based on the product classes, the processes, the resources, and the product orders which are mutually associated by the registration step and the contents of the objective function set by the object setting step;
• and
• a plan creating step of performing optimization calculation by the mathematical programming to derive the variable which maximize or minimize the objective function formulated by the objective function formulating step within a range which satisfies constraints based on the constraint expression formulated by the constraint expression formulating step,
• wherein an operation is started by the resource at the start time included in the decision variable derived by the optimization calculation and an operation is finished by the resource at the end time included in the decision variable derived by the optimization calculation, and
• wherein contents of the objective change according to the contents of the input to the selection input field, and contents of the constraints change according to the contents of the input to the selection input field.