A heuristics guided scheduling framework for domains with complex conditions

In this paper, we describe PLUTO, PLant scheduling expert system bUilding TOol. PLUTO provides the framework to build scheduling systems for daily schedule of the facilities and personnel involved in the manufacturing process. PLUTO is suited for pipe connected plants with strict sanitary conditions, such as plants for medical supplies, chemical or food plants. In these domains, it is difficult to use general problem solvers because strict conditions lead to complex constraints among tasks and resources. Scheduling system built using PLUTO is able to generate schedules in a considerably short amount of time by a combination of heuristic search and constraint propagation. PLUTO has been able to reduce one third of the scheduling cost for real world scheduling problems. >