Intelligent Management Information System

Abstract

The Intelligent Management Information System (IMIS) has the potential to transform human decision making by combining research in Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology, and Systems Engineering. The field of Intelligent Decision Making (IDM) is expanding rapidly, due in part to advances in artificial intelligence and networkcentric environments that can deliver the technology. Communication and coordination between dispersed systems can deliver just-in-time information, real-time processing, collaborative environments, and globally up-to-date information to the human decision maker. At the same time, artificial intelligence techniques have demonstrated that they have matured sufficiently to provide computational assistance to humans in practical applications. It is the development direction of modern management science and technology. In this chapter, firstly we introduce the introduction and background of IMIS, and briefly, the related design conception. Subsequently, the Intelligent Decision Support System (IDSS) is depicted, which is the most significant technology of IMIS and related activities in the manufacturing process. The applications of IDSS and two cases for industrial manufacturing are then presented, representing the future development direction of manufacturing management. Lastly, a summary of this chapter is given. IMIS researchers and technologists have built and investigated Decision Support Systems (DSS) for more than 35 years. The developments in DSS began with building model-oriented DSS in the late 1960s which were followed by theory developments in the 1970s, and the implementation of financial planning systems and Group DSS in the early and mid-1980s. During the mid-1980s, Intelligent DSS were implemented through combining knowledge systems with DSS. These developments are discussed below, as well as the origins of Executive Information Systems, On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP), Business Intelligence, and the implementation of Web-based DSS in the mid-1990s, which quickly became a topic for active discussion, and whose influence spread widely.