The Solution
Toward the end of the ERP implementation, we started working with the company to develop a custom scheduling solution. The development of the company’s scheduling system is a major enterprise systems implementation effort. Its scope and complexity rivals that of the initial ERP implementation. The scheduling system is an entirely custom application, built from the ground up, and integrated with the ERP system. It is the most complex custom development effort that the company has ever undertaken. This is largely because it reflects the scope, uniqueness, and complexity inherent in the company’s value proposition and supporting supply chain. The functional requirements of the system are vast and there are numerous, complex integration points with other applications and supply chain partners.
Working with the company’s subject matter experts and internal IT organization, we developed the business models and requirements definition to support the design and development of the entire system. Our primary development responsibility has been to design and implement the core scheduling engine. The scheduling engine implements a constraint-programming model, that, given the solution time constraint, creates optimal treatment schedules that balance schedule durability (a measure of risk) with plant utilization.
Cancer Treatment Scheduling Page 3 of 5