Copyright  2001 INFORMS 0092-2102/01/3104/0022/$05.00 1526–551X electronic ISSN INFORMATION SYSTEMS—DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS PRODUCTION-SCHEDULING—PLANNING This paper was refereed. INTERFACES 31: 4 July–August 2001 (pp. 22–36) Developing and Implementing a Production Planning DSS for CTI Using Structured Modeling Pedro Gazmuri pgazmuri@uandes.cl Universidad de los Andes San Carlos de Apoquindo 2200 Santiago, Chile Sergio Maturana smaturan@ing.puc.cl Pontificia Universidad Cato ´lica de Chile Casilla 306 Santiago 22, Chile We developed and implemented optimization-based decision support systems (OBDSSs) to support production planning at CTI (an appliance-manufacturing firm) using new methodolo- gies and tools based on structured modeling. These tools can reduce the time and cost required to build such systems. We released different versions of these systems, which progres- sively incorporated new production processes and several other enhancements. Our development strategy included close interaction with CTI’s decision makers, a well-structured train- ing program and follow-up, and short response times for re- leasing new versions of the software. We estimate use of our system increased profits by 13 to 24 percent, depending on the model version applied, an increase of between $3 to $6 million per year. B etween 1994 and 1999 we worked on building a generator of decision sup- port systems (DSSs) for logistic problems based on optimization models. The gener- ator makes use of powerful tools to sup- port the modeling stage, to help build friendly graphical user interfaces, and to interact with relational databases that are frequently used in real applications. Our two main goals were to cut the time and cost it takes to develop such systems and to increase managers’ use of optimization technology. Our work was initially supported by a