videotapes
Irwin/McGraw-Hill has three very useful videotapes for a scheduling class:
One is called "Scheduling Services: The United Solution" It describes in 11 minutes four scheduling systems at United Airlines, namely
- aircraft scheduling
- maintenance scheduling
- crew scheduling
- airport manpower scheduling.
The tape gives an overview of the Pegasus system. It is a very useful tape for a first lecture of a scheduling class to motivate the material.
The second one is called "Processes and Scheduling at Washburn Guitar Inc." It is very useful for classes that deal with job shop scheduling and scheduling in flexible manufacturing systems. It explains the importance of priority rules, the concept of scheduling around a bottleneck, and the concept of scheduling based on the due dates.
The third one is called "Project Management: Building the Alton Super-Bridge". This ten minute video follows the story of the building of the Alton (Illinois) Super-Bridge across the Mississippi river and is based on a two hour PBS documentary on the subject. Highlights include descriptions of the design, the construction process, and even weather issues that project managers had to deal with in completing the project. Interviews with managers and contractors are included.
All three tapes can be obtained from Irwin/McGraw-Hill free of charge when adopting the book.
There are also videotapes that instructors can get from companies that develop scheduling software.
One example: "Introduction to AutoSched'' This tape describes the AutoSched scheduling system in detail (22 min). It gives a good idea of how user interfaces in scheduling systems can be. The tape can be obtained from Autosimulations, Inc., 655 Medical Drive, P.O. Box 307, Bountiful, Utah 84010
A second example is a CD by ILOG that contains a 14 minute film describing ``SAIGA''. This system contains the scheduling systems that are developed by ILOG and in use at the airports of Paris, You can obtain this CD from ILOG: ILOG USA Inc., 1901 Landings Drive, Mountain View, CA 94043 Phone (650) 390-9000. An instructor can also receive a free copy of this tape by contacting the first author of this book.