A knowledge based remote diagnostics system

Knowledge based systems (KBS) have been used in many manufacturing activities in the design and process planning phases of the production chain. However, to provide comprehensive services to the customers, the full life cycle of a product should be considered. In addition to the improvement in cost-performance ratio of the product through effective design and manufacturing activities, a series of after sales services are required to enable the customers to make best use of the product and be satisfied with what they have paid for. This paper describes an industry project to use KBS for the support of customer operations at remote locations. The system provides expert reasoning and control logic using new developments in information technologies to guide customers through a series of diagnostics steps to solve their machine problems. Copyright (C) 1998 IFAC.