Date of Award

1988

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Management Information Systems

Department

Business

First Advisor

M. Ezvan

Abstract

Knowledge systems provide a largely untapped resource for accomplishing productivity gains in the manufacturing support disciplines. Major corporations, usually under the guidance of newly formed Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) departments, are rushing to develop large knowledge systems. These large systems offer the promise of a considerable payback and therefore deserve their current attention. There also exists a wealth of smaller projects that if identified and developed, could contribute to improved corporate performance. The shortage of knowledge engineers has been the major reason why small knowledge system applications in the manufacturing support areas are not being vigorously pursued. This paper presents an end user approach to development of small scale knowledge systems. The described methodology will allow the development of small manufacturing support systems without requiring substantial allocation of a knowledge engineer's time. This methodology, in addition to providing needed manufacturing support knowledge systems, will also aid in identifying future projects as well as develop potential new knowledge engineers.

The objective of this paper is to prove the need for small knowledge systems developed for the manufacturing support environment and the feasibility of a user development methodology. This paper also provides a review of the applicable technology, briefly touches on the growing manufacturing technology controversy, and discusses the user/developer approach and some of its pitfalls. Finally a prototype system is developed using the user/developer methodology.

Download

Included in

Engineering Commons

Share

COinS