Conference heron::euro_swas_ai

370.0. "SCHEDULING - Japan win against IBM" by CHEVIE::FITZGIBBON (Joe Fitzgibbon, Valbonne EIC) Mon Sep 30 1991 13:38

                       Japan: AI Opens Door to New Business,
                                  Wins Against IBM
         
                                  by Fujio Mimomi
         
         DEC-Japan has found that some AI projects play the role of a "door 
         opener" with new customers and help win business from competitors.  
         That's what happened with ANA, one of the three large airlines in 
         Japan, and helped DEC-Japan win against IBM-Japan.  For ANA, 
         DEC-Japan developed three large expert systems named CPS, CRES, 
         and CATS/AI.  All the systems are implemented with KBMS or OPS5.   
         
         
         CPS is a Crew Planning System, which makes mid-range and 
         long-range crew scheduling plans.  CRES is a CRew scheduling 
         Expert System, which makes a monthly work schedule for flight 
         crews.
           
         CATS/AI is a Cabin Attendants Total System that consists of three 
         scheduling expert systems.  One expert system generates flight 
         patterns. The other two are monthly scheduling systems; one for 
         international cabin attendants and one for domestic cabin 
         attendants.  
         
         The CATS/AI system is the largest expert system developed by 
         DEC-Japan and runs on a VAX 6510 computer and 12 VAXstation 3100 
         computers.  CATS/AI gets the cabin attendants' data from a UNISYS 
         host, makes schedules, and sends them back to the host.
         
         To get the CATS/AI business, DEC-Japan competed with IBM-Japan.  
         The two companies developed prototype systems under the same 
         problem conditions for one year.  ANA selected DEC-Japan as its AI 
         partner after DEC-Japan's prototype system was evaluated as the 
         most useful of the two.  DEC-Japan also got the hardware order.  
         Total certs for the CATS/AI is $5.25 million.
            
         In 1982, only a few people were doing AI business in DEC-Japan.  
         Now, more than 50 people are working AI business in different 
         organizations.  Those organizations include:
         
          o  Digital Services 
         	   - Systems Engineering, System Technology Group, AI 
         	   - Base Application Enterprise Integration Center, AI 
         	     Technology Center 
         	   - West Japan Enterprise Integration Center
          o  Marketing							   
          o  Sales Program Office
         
         DEC-Japan sells VAX LISP, Quintus Prolog, VAX OPS5, KBMS (a hybrid 
         ES tool developed by NTT), ART and Nexpert Object.  While the 
         product and educational businesses have declined for the last two 
         years, application development business has been increasing since 
         the group began its AI business.  
                                        ###
         		     
         		     Fujio Mimomi was a member of the CATS/AI 
                             Project.  He can be reached at TKOV51::MIMOMI.