News - Dash Optimization and Cosytec announce Xpress-CP

Dash Optimization and Cosytec announce Xpress-CP - a new software component for planning and scheduling optimization

02 June 2003

LONDON and PARIS, 2nd June 2003: Dash Optimization Ltd and Cosytec SA announced today that they are to release a new product, Xpress-CP, which will address the general planning and scheduling problem across a wide range of applications. This component will be made available to end-users, consultants and OEMs as a basis for applications, solutions and software products. By improving the quality of plans, and reducing the time taken schedule operations, companies benefit through more agile operation and more effective and efficient capacity utilization.

Xpress-CP combines the mathematical optimization (MIP) software, Xpress-MP, from Dash and the constraint programming (CP) software, CHIP, from Cosytec in a framework known as hybrid optimization. The CP is used within the MIP optimization to confirm that, as plans are generated, they can indeed be implemented. An important advantage of Xpress-CP is that the MIP and CP technologies exist within the same software environment and the business problem is expressed within a single model. The model is written using Dash's easy to use Xpress-Mosel environment and the MIP/CP solver is invoked without the need for complex programming or particular expertise in MIP/CP.

Xpress-CP is being developed following the successful conclusion of the European 'LISCOS' project. Trials at four partners - Barbot SA, BASF AG, Procter and Gamble, and PSA Peugeot Citroën - demonstrated the effectiveness of the approach and the potential benefits; in general the planning and scheduling process was made easier, faster and more effective, and as a result, agility and capacity utilization was improved. Xpress-CP will be available for early adopters in October 2003, and the full launch will be in 2004 Q1.

Commenting on the announcement, Dr Mehmet Dincbas, President and CEO of Cosytec, said "Making CP technology available through the Xpress-Mosel interface will greatly ease development and maintenance costs, so opening up a much larger community to the benefits of CP for scheduling problems. Combined with MIP, a much larger class of problems will now become soluble." Cosytec will continue to develop the CP technology embedded within Xpress-CP, and apply Xpress-CP in solutions for their clients, in conjunction with their CHIP V5 system.

Alan Dormer, Director of Dash Optimization, added "Up to now, planning and scheduling problems have been solved separately, resulting in inefficiencies and missed opportunities. Xpress-CP will, for the first time, allow businesses to handle planning and scheduling in one framework, using one common model and one common solution technology, making the plans be more profitable and reducing system maintenance." Dash will hold worldwide marketing rights for Xpress-CP, as well as continuing to develop the Xpress-MP technologies used within it.

Simon Bragg, ARC European Research Director, comments "Combining LP and CP into a dream team is a valuable breakthrough, which competing solver suppliers have so far failed to achieve. Now CP can pass constraints back into the LP and re-optimize. It changes the way companies are structured. In too many companies, marketing runs planning, and production optimizes schedules using the different optimization techniques. Now it's possible to create a single planning and scheduling process."

For more information, please contact Dash or Cosytec.

Dash Optimization:
Dawn Mazzanti
email:
tel: +44 1926 315862

Cosytec:
Dr. Mehmet Dincbas
email: mehmet.dincbas@cosytec.com
tel: +33 1 60 19 37 38

About Cosytec

Cosytec, founded in 1990 near Paris, France, is a highly specialized software company offering advanced solutions and products based on Constraint Programming (CP) technology. Its founders are from the original CHIP team at ECRC (European Computer-Industry Research Centre) and were at the origin of the CP technology.

The core product of Cosytec is CHIP V5, the second generation CP tool, offering the concept of global constraints in an open architecture and providing the world's most advanced constraint-solving system.

Cosytec's products and solutions are used world-wide by industry and service leaders, willing to implement highly efficient Business Process Optimization solutions, especially in the areas of production scheduling, logistics / supply chain management and personnel planning.

For more information about Cosytec visit www.cosytec.com.