Abstract:
This thesis presents the design and development of a computer-aided seat assignment for state banquet according to ranking, protocol, and seating regulations. Three patterns of tables are considered : the U, I, and E-shaped. The system conveniently and quickly assists the assignment process by minimizing the number of regulation violations. The system consists of four modules : data preparation, ranking process, seat assignment, and assignment printing. Each guest is ranked according to his or her career position, order of decoration, nationality and sex. Then for each seat considered in priority, the highest unseated guest is selected under the following three constraints : women and men are seated alternatively, Thais and foreigners are seated alternatively, and no couples are seated next to or facing each other. Since the number of men, women, Thais, and foreigners are uneven, the system first selects which group of guests to be seated next by sex and nationality in order to uniformly distribute the number of women, men, Thais, and foreigners, then selects the guest with highest rank in that group to be seated next. By using three state banquets as test cases, the system out performed the manual system by 26.68 percent (smaller number of regulation violations) and took only 18 seconds for a seat assignment.