Design of a Knowledge-based Scheduling System for a Sheet Material Manufacturer

The field of production scheduling is dominated by research of a theoretical and quantitative nature (e.g., Halsall et al., 1994). Although several authors have argued that there is a large gap between theory and practice (McKay, 1988; Sanderson, 1989; Wiers, 1997a), the stream of publications about production scheduling has not shown much change in focus. There is also a great need for empirical evidence regarding the applicability of scheduling techniques in practice.