The FASTOOL Project has resulted in the development of toolroom scheduling software which is being made available to project participants - giving them a competitive head-start.

The EU funded FASTOOL Project, led by GTMA, has resulted in the development of toolroom scheduling software which is being made available to project participants - giving them a competitive head-start. The latest version of the software has been tested and refined to accommodate users' requirements, obtained through the feed-back process, The scheduling software enables users to input detailed information about the items being produced and the resources required, including any NC code, and the software then automatically schedules the job to make the most efficient use of available high speed milling machines, electrode EDM machines and other resources. Different levels of user are defined in the software, from 'Administrator' through 'Designer' and 'Planner' to 'Operator' and each level is assigned its own range of permissions and access rights.

Thus, the Administrator has full control over user accounts, including creating and amending them, the Designer defines the jobs and enters them into the schedule, while the Operator can only view the Current Work Schedule and print out desired schedule records.

The FASTOOL Toolroom Scheduling software is usable as a stand-alone product and provides a user-friendly interface for allocating jobs and resources while schedules are represented in a GANTT chart representation.

Other special features provided by the new software include: * Full control over resource allocation (machines, personnel etc).

* Fully customisable working hours for each resource used.

* Full control over machine tool capacities and scheduling constraints.

* Automatic rescheduling of jobs for the optimum machine tool utilisation.

* Manual override and rescheduling facility through a drag and drop interface.

* Virtually unlimited job capacity The FASTOOL Toolroom Scheduler will form the heart of a demonstration facility being created at CRDM Research, within Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College in High Wycombe.

This facility will be used to promote the benefits of toolroom automation, as part of the European FASTOOL Collaborative Project, which, in addition to GTMA, also involves CRDM Research (UK), Metaalunie and TNO (The Netherlands), NCG and Faunhofer-IPT (Germany) and ASCAMM and Fatronik (Spain).