Viability of automatic resource scheduling

Abstract

In today's fast-paced business world, companies always look for ways to improve their operations and boost efficiency. One crucial aspect is scheduling, which can significantly impact productivity, inventory levels, output, and more. However, creating efficient schedules can be difficult with traditional planning methods; often leading to infrequent updates, slower reaction times, and inaccurate plans - all of which can result in lost profits. To tackle these challenges, in this project, two models that can generate acceptable schedules were developed and a user interface to simplify schedule creation, analysis, and data manipulation for the model. The main objective of this research was to test the product's viability through two assessments: first, by testing the optimization models' performance, accuracy, and efficiency with real-world data sets, and second, by conducting user interviews to gain insights into users' problems and needs. Both evaluations yielded promising results; the optimization model produced satisfactory schedules, and the user interviews provided valuable insights that helped identify target industries and refine the product vision.