Handling real-time scheduling exceptions using decision support systems

Airbase Logistics involves processes that support aircraft maintenance which requires resources and completion of many tasks. Uncertainties in the maintenance system can lead to deviations from the schedule. Events that are unplanned and interrupt the normal process flow of a system are termed as "exceptions". Under exceptional situations, the supervisor has to provide decisions in the shortest time. The key research objective was to develop a decision support system and determine the effectiveness with which such a system can handle exceptions occurring during the maintenance phase. This paper discusses the problems that lead to uncertainties, and also the architecture of the decision support system for the research study. An experimental evaluation used completion time, and percentage mechanic utilization to evaluate system performance. Results showed significant performance improvement between the system with decision support tools and system with no exception handling.