Expert systems and their applications in production and operations management

Recently, the world competitive environment has forced organizations to reexamine and reevaluate their manufacturing strategies. Large capital investments in machine tools and management control systems are being made. The application fo expert systems in the production environment has been steadily increasing. This paper examines the concepts of expert systems and reviews the literature pertinent to the areas of application in production management such as scheduling, layout planning and tools used in applying these concepts such as simulation and optimization. It has been concluded that due to increasing automation requirements in manufacturing and the intensified organizational competitive environment, the decision making process itself will have to be automated. It has been suggested that expert systems could be a vehicle in achieving this. This paper examines the applications of expert systems in production and operations management. The technology of expert systems is still in its infancy and many researchers see learning as a major problem. As expert systems become more readily available, the management issues of safety, validity and reliability will become more crucial. The compensation on transferring of knowledge is unclear. Also, the fear of replacement of white collar jobs is growing.