INTERACTIVE DISTRIBUTED LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT

THIS PROJECT WILL DEMONSTRATE THE PRACTICALITY OF AN INTERACTIVE, HIERARCHICAL, DISTRIBUTED PLANNING SYSTEM FOR LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT. WE WILL DESIGN A SYSTEM THAT WILL SUPPORT PARALLEL, ASYNCHRONOUS, INTERACTIVE LOGISTICS PLANNING AT MULTIPLE LEVELS OF THE MANAGEMENT HIERARCHY AND AT MULTIPLE SITES SO THAT MANY PEOPLE COOPERATIVELY BUILD AND ADMINISTER A LOGISTICS PLAN. FOR EXAMPLE, A HIGHER-LEVEL MANAGER CAN OUTLINE AN AGGREGATE PLAN AT HIS HEADQUARTERS WORKSTATION; THE PLANNING SYSTEM WILL SUITABLY PARTITION AND DISTRIBUTE THE RESULTING GOALS AND CONSTRAINTS TO SUCCESSIVELY LOWER-LEVEL MANAGERS, WHO WILL INTERACTIVELY ADD DETAIL TO REALIZE THE PLAN AND MONITOR ITS EXECUTION. WE WILL DETERMINE THE INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS AND OPTIMIZATION CAPABILITIES APPROPRIATE TO EACH LEVEL OF THE HIERARCHY AND COMMUNICATION PROTOCOLS AMONG LEVELS TO ENSURE THAT THE SYSTEM IS RESPONSIVE, ROBUST, AND ACCURATE. ???????????