A decision support system for product design in concurrent engineering

Compared with the traditional sequential design method, concurrent engineering is a systematic approach to integrate concurrent design of products and their related processes. One of the key factors to successfully implement concurrent engineering is information technology. In order to design a product and its manufacturing process simultaneously, information on product features, manufacturing requirements, and customer demands must be processed while the design is concurrently going on. There is an increased understanding of the importance of the correct decisions being made at the conceptual design and development stages that involve many complex evaluation and decision-making tasks. In order to promote the efficiency in concurrent product development, appropriate evaluation and decision tools need to be provided. In this paper, the characteristics of fuzzy, multi-stage evaluation and decision making in concurrent product development process are analyzed and a decision support system for product design in concurrent engineering is presented. An example is given to illustrate the application of the system.     

错峰调度决策支持系统的设计与实现

基于C/S结构体系设计和实现了渭河洪水错峰调度决策支持系统。采用DCOM技术将地理信息系统开发平台MapX与开发工具Delphi相结合，分别对辅助决策支持系统和专家决策支持系统进行设计，开发并实现了以渭河流域为背景的错峰调度决策支持系统。事例测试表明：该系统设计可靠、功能齐全，具有很强的实用性，能为防洪指挥决策人员和管理人员提供雨、水、工情全面信息支持和洪水调度的决策支持。     

Cognitive biases and decision support systems development: a design science approach

Abstract.  This paper presents design science research that aims to improve decision support systems (DSS) development in organizations. Evolutionary development has been central to DSS theory and practice for decades, but a significant problem for DSS analysts remains how to conceptualize the improvement of a decision task during evolutionary DSS development. The objective of a DSS project is to improve the decision process and outcome for a manager making an important decision. The DSS analyst needs to have a clear idea of the nature of the target decision task and a clear strategy of how to support the decision process. Existing psychological research was examined for help with the conceptualization problem, and the theory of cognitive bias is proposed as a candidate for this assistance. A taxonomy of 37 cognitive biases that codifies a complex area of psychological research is developed. The core of the project involves the construction of a design artefact – an evolutionary DSS development methodology that uses cognitive bias theory as a focusing construct, especially in its analysis cycles. The methodology is the major contribution of the project. The feasibility and effectiveness of the development methodology are evaluated in a participatory case study of a strategic DSS project where a managing director is supported in a decision about whether to close a division of a company.     

Support for real-time decision making in mobile financial applications

Mobile users making real-time decisions based on current information need confidence that their context has been taken into consideration in producing the system’s recommendations. This chapter reviews current use of mobile technologies for context-aware real-time decision support. Specifically, it describes a framework for assessing the impact of mobility in decision making. The framework uses dynamic context model of data quality to represent uncertainties in the mobile decision-making environment. This framework can be used for developing visual interactive displays for communicating to the user relevant changes in data quality when working in mobile environments. As an illustration, this chapter proposes a real-time decision support procedure for on-the-spot assistance to the mobile consumer when choosing the best payment option to efficiently manage their budget. The proposed procedure is based on multi-attribute decision analysis, scenario reasoning, and a quality of data framework. The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated with a mobile decision-support system prototype implementation. This article is part of the “Handbook on Decision Support Systems” edited by Frada Burstein and Clyde W. Holsapple (2008) Springer.     

Ontology-based reconfiguration agent for intelligent mechatronic systems in flexible manufacturing

This paper proposes a novel approach to achieving fast reconfiguration of modular manufacturing systems, based on an ontology-based reconfiguration agent. The agent uses ontological knowledge of the manufacturing environment for the purpose of reconfiguration without human intervention. The current mass customization era requires increased flexibility and agility in the manufacturing systems to adapt changes in manufacturing requirements and environments. Our configuration agent minimises the overheads of the current reconfiguration process by automating it. It infers facts about the manufacturing environment from the ontological knowledge model and then decides whether the current environment can support the given manufacturing requirements. This paper proposes the agent architecture enabling the integration between the high level planning with the distributed low level control compliant with the upcoming IEC 61499 function blocks standard.     

A decision support system for material and manufacturing process selection

The material and manufacturing process selection problem is a multi-attribute decision-making problem. These decisions are made during the preliminary design stages in an environment characterized by imprecise and uncertain requirements, parameters, and relationships. Material and process selection decisions must occur before design for manufacturing can begin. This paper describes a prototype material and manufacturing process selection system called MAMPS that integrates a formal multi-attribute decision model with a relational database. The decision model enables the representation of the designer's preferences over the decision factors. A compatibility rating between the product profile requirements and the alternatives stored in the database for each decision criteria is generated using possibility theory. The vector of compatibility ratings are aggregated into a single rating of that alternative's compatibility. A ranked set of compatible material and manufacturing process alternatives is output by the system. This approach has advantages over existing systems that either do not have a decision module or are not integrated with a database.     

An Internet of Things-enabled BIM platform for modular integrated construction: A case study in Hong Kong

In recent years, Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been acting an important role in the delivery of Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) project. However, the full potential of BIM to MiC project cannot be realized without accurate information collection, timely information exchange, and automatic decision support throughout the project life cycle. In order to fulfil such requirements, this paper aims to develop an Internet of Things-enabled BIM platform (IBIMP) for the MiC project. A real-life project located in Hong Kong were deeply explored for developing the platform. The IBIMP consists of smart construction objects (SCOs) equipped with smart trinity tag (STT) and GPS sensor, smart gateway system, data source management service, location-based service, rule-based progress control service, as well as decision support services for prefabrication production, transportation, and on-site assembly processes. With the combination of advanced Internet of Things (IoT) technology and BIM technology, the barriers that hamper the possible functions of BIM can be overcame. By using application scenarios of a subsided sale flats MiC project in Hong Kong as examples, this study demonstrates how problems encountered by independent stakeholders such as inconvenient data collection, lack of automatic decision support, and incomplete information can be addressed by the IBIMP.     

供应商选择的决策支持系统

供应商的选择是供应链管理中至关重要的组成 部分．本文在分析了敏捷制造模式下,供应商选择评估系统的功能需求的基础上,结合决策 支持系统（DSS）的新发展、新技术,提出了供应商选择决策支持系统的一种实现策略．     

基于方案本体的决策模型组装

决策模型组装是智能决策系统中的重要功能。基于本体的决策模型组装在模型之间的匹配上提供了丰富的语义信息,但本体推理的效率造成的响应速度较慢依然是需要解决的问题。本文提出一种基于方案本体的决策模型组装方法,可有效地减少本体建模的复杂度,并设计了相应的算法实现这种方法。     

煤炭企业决策支持信息系统

以龙口矿业集团有限公司的决策支持信息系统为例,详细介绍了煤炭企业决策支持信息系统的总体架构、系统数据来源及处理、关键指标信息、系统功能。该系统通过DTS、中间件等技术获取数据;采用面向主题的数据仓库多维表结构和与业务系统对应的ODS层表结构存储数据;通过分析各种数据指标的类型及属性,建立起一套共包含45个关键指标的企业关键指标体系结构;并采用同比分析、环比分析、趋势分析等数学模型对数据进行分析和展现,从而实现辅助决策。     

基于数据仓库的OLAP在DSS中的应用研究

以数据仓库为基础的在线联机分析处理(OLAP)技术是决策支持系统(DSS)中一种新的决策分析方法。该文从DSS的实际需求出发,分析了数据仓库的特征和结构模型,研究了OLAP的特征和体系结构及其实现决策分析的过程,最后给出了应用实例,并探讨了完善DSS结构的研究方向。     

An approach to user knowledge acquisition in product design

As the world increasingly moves towards a knowledge-based economy, user requirements become an important factor for enterprises to drive product collaborative design evolution. To map user requirements to the product model, user requirements are generally extracted into knowledge that can be used for design decisions. However, because users are interest-driven participants and not professional design engineers, the effect of user knowledge acquisition is not ideal. There are significant challenges for rapid knowledge acquisition with dynamic user requirements. This paper presents an approach to user knowledge acquisition in the product design process, which obtains the tangible requirements of users under the premise that users are adequate for participation. In this approach, the typical information flow is divided into four stages: submission, interaction, knowledge discovery, and model evolution. In the submission stage, natural language processing technology is used to transform text form solutions into data, so that computer technology can be applied to manage large-scale user requirements. In the interaction stage, users are helped to improve their solutions by the iterative recommendation process. In the knowledge discovery stage, after less concerned partial solutions are removed and vacant items are predicted to be supplemented, the final collection of user design information is obtained. Finally, based on rough set theory, design knowledge can be extracted to support the decision of the product model. The washing machine design project is used as a case study to explain the implementation of the proposed approach.     

Applications of group technology in distributed manufacturing

This paper discusses the systematic use of group technology (GT) to support important activities of distributed manufacturing including design indexing and retrieval, variant design, variant process planning, and design critiquing. We introduce an Object-Oriented Group Technology (OOGT) scheme, which captures design data critical to the product's manufacture. Our approach uses a STEP-based product information model to generate the OOGT data automatically. The latter are then used to conduct an efficient search for similar products manufactured by selected companies and to retrieve and use information about the manufacturing processes and performance of these similar products.     

A hybrid methodology for restructuring decision of a manufacturing system: A case study

The output performance of a manufacturing system depends on its operational continuity. However, a manufacturing system can stop for a short time or it can be out of service for a long time due to crucial problems such as poor performance of old machines, unexpected breakdowns or faulty plant and system design. Many firms try to restructure their manufacturing systems to avoid these crucial problems and to be more efficient, profitable and better organized. However, the decision to begin the process of restructuring is a difficult and critical choice for most decision makers due to the fact that the decision threshold of the process is ambiguous. This paper proposes a hybrid methodology for the decision makers who will decide on restructuring a manufacturing system. The proposed methodology provides crucial information for the decision makers combining fuzzy logic approach and reliability analysis.     

A decision analysis based system for formulating manufacturing strategy

Although a substantial number of decision and management science models of production management decisions have been developed, these models have not generally addressed the strategic framework of manufacturing, considered as an integrated pattern of decisions. They have usually been concerned with only one aspect of manufacturing strategy such as capacity or technology choice and have framed that choice using a single dimension of value such as cost. This study develops a comprehensive decision analysis model base which can be implemented as a DSS, to gain insight about the broader manufacturing strategy set. Decision trees, influence diagrams, Monte Carlo risk analysis and multiple criteria utility functions can contribute to a better understanding of and to decision support for manufacturing strategy formulation.     

企业集团分布式数据仓库及决策支持系统研究

为了构建支持企业集团决策分析的信息系统,分析了企业集团决策支持系统信息模型,给出了面向整个集团的基于分布式数据仓库的企业集团决策支持系统的体系结构;通过定义决策方案模型及决策任务模型,提出了模型驱动的企业集团决策支持系统解决方案,并给出了决策任务模型并行执行算法。应用表明,该体系结构是可行且有效的。     

中文非功能需求描述的识别与分类方法研究

非功能需求描述系统质量相关的属性,是软件设计决策的重要依据和评估标准.与功能需求的描述相比,非功能需求描述通常比较分散,且往往是隐含的.当采集到的需求原始描述内容较多时,逐一进行人工判别和整理需要耗费大量的时间和精力.针对中文自然语言描述的需求文本,提出了自动化的非功能需求识别和分类方法.其中,识别过程旨在从文本中提取出可能包含非功能需求的语句,尽可能地缩小人工检查的范围.分类过程则进一步将包含非功能需求的语句划分到性能、可靠性、可用性、安全性、可维护性这五大类非功能需求类型之中.分类训练和实验测试基于课题组工作项目整理的实验数据集进行,最终,基于一个工业界的实际应用案例数据,验证了方法的有效性.     

Interactive computer support in decision conferencing: Two cases on off-site nuclear emergency management

In this paper, we study the new opportunities offered by the interactive use of advanced multicriteria software in decision conferencing. We analyze and make observations on this approach in two one-day decision conferences on the planning of later phase countermeasures in off-site nuclear emergency management. The participants' individual use of the software in the preference elicitation phase was an essential new characteristic of these conferences. It turned out to be a feasible and well accepted process. We shall discuss the requirements for the facilitation and computer support in this kind of an approach.     

Reflective knowledge models to support an advanced HCI for decision management

In the previous years, the evolution of the telematics technology has introduced a new scenario of human–computer operation where the achievement of an adequate level of user–system interaction has become a key aspect. This issue is specially relevant in real-time management scenarios where the system is intended to provide an intelligent support to human operators in the decision-making task. This paper proposes the use of advanced knowledge-based models to support human–computer interaction in the context of real-time decision for management problems. The approach is mainly based on endowing intelligent systems with an introspection capability that makes possible an adaptive performance to the characteristics of the interaction. This capability is supported by a reflective architecture where a metalevel layer dynamically configures reasoning strategies to generate the required answers by looking into a structured collection of problem-solving components. The approach was developed and applied within the FLUIDS project, an European Commission Telematics Applications research project. The proposal is illustrated with an example in the domain of real-time private traffic management in the city of Turin.