Schedule Density Zooming for Logic-Tied Summarized Schedules
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current scheduling software lacks the ability to automatically generate summarized schedules with logic ties, limiting the computation of total floats and critical paths, and requiring manual and repetitive efforts by schedulers to maintain schedule integrity across revisions.
Innovation Solution
An interactive and automated scheduling system that generates a hierarchy of logic-tied schedule densities on a digital canvas, allowing real-time zooming in and out to visually represent and recalculate schedule details, ensuring horizontal traceability and concordance between detailed and summarized schedules.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If conventional scheduling software generates summarized schedules, then the schedule can be displayed at higher hierarchical levels, but logic ties between summarized activities are lost and total floats/critical paths cannot be computed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements nested schedule densities where multiple hierarchical levels are contained within a single visualization. Each parent activity contains child activities, which may themselves contain grandchildren activities, creating a nested structure similar to Russian dolls. This allows the system to maintain logic ties at all levels while displaying summarized schedules, as each nesting level preserves the logical relationships of its contained activities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces dynamic zooming functionality that allows users to interactively change the level of detail displayed. The system dynamically adjusts the schedule density by zooming in to show more detailed child activities or zooming out to show summarized parent activities. This dynamic adjustment maintains logic ties at the currently displayed level while allowing navigation between different hierarchical levels, resolving the contradiction between summary display and logic computation.
2Reliability
If manual logic ties are added between summary activities, then logic computation becomes possible, but the task is arduous and must be repeated with each schedule revision
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements an automated system that generates logic ties between summarized activities without requiring manual intervention. The system automatically computes and establishes logical relationships between parent and child activities based on their temporal and hierarchical relationships. When the schedule is revised, the system automatically updates all logic ties across all hierarchical levels, eliminating the need for manual rework and significantly improving productivity while maintaining reliable logic computation.
3Loss of information
If detailed schedule activities are displayed, then complete information is visible, but the schedule becomes difficult to manage at higher hierarchical levels
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic zooming that allows users to interactively adjust the level of detail displayed. Users can zoom in to view detailed child activities when needed and zoom out to view summarized parent activities for high-level management. The system dynamically adjusts the visualization to show only the relevant level of detail, preventing information overload while maintaining access to complete information when required.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the schedule into multiple hierarchical levels that can be independently displayed and managed. Each level represents a different granularity of detail, from high-level summary activities to detailed child activities. This segmentation allows users to focus on the appropriate level of detail for their current task, improving ease of operation while preserving access to complete information through the hierarchical structure.
Data Source
AI summary
A scheduling system and method provides a strategy for an interactive and automated summarized source network schedule on a time-scaled graph of a digital canvas that includes a hierarchy of schedule densities generated from source child activities. As the time-scaled graph is time compressed, the source child activities snap into parent activities of a higher hierarchy level such that the source child activities become visually non-present on the digital canvas and the parent activities of the higher hierarchy level becomes visually present on the digital canvas. As the time-scaled graph is time-stretched, the source child activities that are associated with the parent activities of the hierarchy level that is currently visible on the digital canvas snap out of the parent activities and become visually present on the digital canvas and the parent activities become visually non-present.