A spatial scheduling system for block painting process in shipbuilding

This paper deals with a spatial scheduling problem for the painting process in shipbuilding. This problem is complicated because both scheduling and s patial allocation of the blocks in the paint shop, and the workload balance among working teams should be considered simultaneously. The spatial sched uling system for the block painting process includes an operation strategy algorithm, a block scheduling algorithm, a block arrangement algorithm, and a block assignment algorithm. This system generates the block painting sch edules that satisfy due date, working space constraint, and workload balanc e among working teams. This system has been tested using actual scheduling data from a shipyard and successfully implemented in a paint shop in a ship building company.