Expert systems and production/operations management

Traditional operations research/management science (OR/MS) methods emphasizing the use of mathematical models have been applied with great success to solve a wide variety of well-defined operations problems. However, there are limitations to the types of problems that mathematical models can solve. Artificial intelligence (AI) and expert systems (ES) technologies are being used increasingly to deal with problems that are beyond the capabilities of numerical algorithms. This paper examines the current and potential applications of expert systems in production and operations management. It is suggested that a creative combined use of expert systems and OR/MS methods can greatly enhance a decision maker’s ability to deal with many complicated, ill-structured operations problems.