An Expert System for Lettuce Handling at a Retail Store

ABSTRACT AN expert system prototype (LETTMAN) was developed to simulate the decision-making process of a produce manager in a retail store. Lettuce was the commodity studied and a produce manager served as the domain expert. From several interview sessions with the domain expert, a flowchart was developed to illustrate the decisions considered, and a knowledge base was created using the production rule language of the expert system shell Insight2+. Results of the study showed that quality determination, price adjustment, potential sales and inventory control were the primary decision areas. Evaluation of LETTMAN indicated the need to incorporate reasoning schemes other than confidence factors in modeling lettuce quality decisions.