ORION Planning and Scheduling provides tools to permit a different and much more comprehensive approach to the scheduling of activities, a new level of interactivity with the plan, and a degree of mechanisation of the plan unattainable with previous methods.
Up to now the only scheduling tools on offer suited a simple static application well, while leaving the more complex tasks to human planners.
Complex scheduling requires the manipulation of tentative information and structure. The information about tentative structure has up to now been kept in people's heads, because there was no place for it in a mechanised plan. These new scheduling tools handle tentative structure (if this happens, we will do that) simply and efficiently, greatly increasing the scope and effectiveness of planning.
The system is well suited to graphical interaction by planners, as all elements of the plan including its logic have a simple intuitive visual representation.