Problem-oriented Decision Support in Manufacturing Industry

Decision-making in manufacturing organizations involves detecting and attacking problems continuously and hence requires very large volumes of problem-oriented knowledge. This paper firstly analyzes the features of problem knowledge and proposes a series of knowledge-based reasoning rules to yield knowledge from original problem evidence. Then a reasoning mechanism controlling the reasoning process is established on the basis of these rules and embedded to a knowledge-based decision support system (KB-DSS). The problem-oriented KB-DSS can support the interactive analysis of problems and interpret reasoning results in a format understandable and useful for decision-making process. This combination of problem-oriented knowledge reasoning and traditional decision support system provides useful and effective approaches for management practice in manufacturing industry.