An Expert System as a Manager in the Application of Production Planning and Control Software in CIM Environments

This paper presents the way that expert system technology has been used for the development of a consulting tool in the National Technical University of Athens, aiming to support those who want to apply Production Planning and Control (PPC) software in their manufacturing firm. In the knowledge base that has been created, both a production systems taxonomy and a generic software package with specific modules and functions are presented. The inferences are based on rules, that express the need for the existence of certain software, when a set of production systems characteristics is found in the production system that is under consideration. The results that are given by the expert system include the whole architecture of PPC software package that is applicable in a certain manufacturing setting.