TACIT exploits Constraint Programming technology by companies from steel manufacturing, oxygen and nitrogen production and machine manufacturing. The project concerns the development of three scheduling applications based on models of real production processes and evaluation of the practical usefulness of such tools in everyday planning.
Using conventional programming techniques, it is very difficult to solve highly combinatorial problems like scheduling, resource allocation and planning. Constraint programming is an emerging technology which provides a general framework for efficient and flexible solving of complex problems through combined implementation of various constraint solvers. There are no tools available to solve, for example, long-term planning problems and CP technology can achieve this goal. The three industrial partners are all involved in an industry segment where the successful application of constraint techniques will provide significant reductions in cost (transportation, size inventory, energy cost,...).The application described here is the one relative to Air Liquide SA Belgian Division That manages the northern production network of Air Liquide and distributes oxygen, nitrogen and argon with pipes for gases and with classical transport for liquid gases.
Project URL: http://www.sics.se/col/projects/tacit/