Unsurpassed Optimization
OTS' team of world class scientists, mathematicians and technologists have developed an extraordinary collection of proprietary algorithms, methods and trade secrets. When combined with conventional and innovative scientific techniques the result is unsurpassed optimization. These are at the core of all OTS products.
OTS' team of world class scientists, mathematicians and technologists have developed an extraordinary collection of proprietary algorithms, methods and trade secrets. When combined with conventional and innovative scientific techniques the result is unsurpassed optimization. These are at the core of all OTS products.
>> more
Optimization with Project Management and Schedules
• The Weakness of Traditional Project Scheduling
Traditional project scheduling systems such as Primavera, Microsoft Project, Artemis and SAP, rely upon "makespan minimization" techniques to develop schedules. Makespan minimization attempts to schedule tasks as early as possible, subject to constraints and resource availability. This approach relies on the flawed logic that it is never wrong to get work done early and that a shorter schedule is always more efficient. In complex scenarios, such as ship building, makespan minimization does not create optimal schedules, and human project managers and schedulers end up spending considerable time and effort adjusting and modifying projects to improve them. However, the overwhelming number and complexity of relationships make it is practically impossible to manually create a highly efficient and optimized schedule.
• A Different Approach
OTS tackles these problems with a dramatically different approach. We have developed state of the art nonsystematic techniques such as squeaky wheel optimization to achieve unparalleled optimization. The results delivered by ARGOS have never before been possible and cannot be obtained with any other technology. ARGOS optimization typically produces schedules that exhibit a 10% reduction in construction labor costs when compared with those in use in the yards today. These savings are achieved without changing the fundamental production process or shipyard facility in any way.
>> more
Other Industries
In addition to shipyards, the schedule optimization technologies in ARGOS are applicable to any industry or organization that does critical path scheduling. Labor savings of around 10% have been shown for schedules used in industries as diverse as construction and oil refinery maintenance. Hundreds of millions of dollars can be saved by using ARGOS to deploy workforces and utilize resources effectively.
Scientific Publications
On Time Game
An addictive free scheduling game that demonstrates some of the challenges of schedule optimization. Download...
- Generalizing
Boolean Satisfiability I: Background and Survey of Existing Work
- An Approach to Resource Constrained Project Scheduling
- An effective algorithm for project scheduling with arbitrary temporal constraints.
On Time Game
An addictive free scheduling game that demonstrates some of the challenges of schedule optimization. Download...
Computational
Intelligence Research Laboratory (CIRL)
OTS was spun out of the University of Oregon's Computational Intelligence Research Laboratory. Founded by OTS' Matthew Ginsberg and David Etherington, CIRL was for many years a world leader in research in artificial intelligence, search, optimization and constraint satisfaction. More recently, Ginsberg and Etherington have devoted their full attention to OTS, and CIRL has become inactive.
CIRL's research areas included:
• Artificial intelligence
• Search optimization
• Constraint satisfaction
• Knowledge representation
• Tractable reasoning
>> more