Expert systems in manufacturing. Part 1: A users' perspective on expert-systems innovation

Abstract

Abstract The development of applications with proven benefits, the availability of better development methodologies and tools, realism about what expert systems are capable of, and the integration of expert systems into mainstream information technology are all factors that, in the 1990s, will promote increased exploitation of this technology in the manufacturing sector. Despite these developments, however, there still remains some uncertainty as to precisely how expert systems are being used in manufacturing other than in the ‘show-case’ and large-scale demonstration systems, and in the more general attempts to disseminate selected companies' experiences in developing applications in an attempt to define ‘best practice’. Further, little attention has been paid to the managerial context and human and organizational processes involved in expert-systems innovation. The paper is one of two that review the management of expert-systems technology in manufacturing. It begins by evaluating current experiences with expert systems through a study of 145 manufacturing companies in the UK, from which an agenda of business, technical and managerial issues is raised. The analysis highlights the importance of human and organizational perspectives in the understanding of why expert systems succeed, or indeed fail, and it points to the need for greater attention to be paid to the process issues of innovation that help companies to define and manage appropriate development pathways in their organization — appropriate in the sense that they are meaningful within a specific organizational context, and adaptable given a company's specific needs and constraints. The second paper extends these arguments to a consideration of the wider processes of technology (and knowledge) transfer, and it develops a management framework to facilitate successful innovation in expert systems, and, more importantly, to enable desirable organizational change to take place.