PDM: A knowledge-based tool for model construction

This paper describes PDM, a knowledge-based tool designed to help non-expert users construct Linear Programming (LP) models of Production, Distribution and Inventory (PDI) planning problems. PDM interactively aids users in defining a qualitative model of their planning problem, and employs it to generate problem-specific inferences and as input to a model building component that mechanically constructs the algebraic schema of the appropriate LP model. Interesting features of PDM include the application of domain knowledge to guide user interaction, the use of syntactic knowledge of the problem representation language to effect model revision, and in the use of a small set of primitive modelling rules in model construction.