Intelligent support systems

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Intelligent Decision Support Systems (IDSS) is a term that describes the various commercial applications of artificial intelligence (AI) . Artificial intelligence has two basic ideas: it involves studying the thought processes of humans and it deals with representing those processes via machines.

Knowledge-based systems and intelligent systems are important components of an organization's information systems portfolio (Hayes-Roth 1997; Hayes-Roth and Jacobstein 1994).

Expert systems are one of the most exciting new developments in the information technology area. It emerged as a practical application of research in artificial intelligence nowadays expert systems combine knowledge of a particular application area with an inference capability, to enable the system to reach a level of decision making performance comparable to (or even exceeding) that of human experts in some specialized areas.

Ideally (intelligent) decision support systems should behave like a human consultant; supporting decision makers in better understanding their problems.

Intelligent agents are small programs that reside on computers to conduct certain tasks automatically. An example from this is a virus detection program. This intelligent agent runs in the background, monitors the environment and reacts to certain trigger conditions.

A software agent, either intelligent or not, is a program that performs a specific task for a user. An intelligent agent performs, reactively and/or pro-actively, interactive tasks tailored to a user’s needs without humans or other agents telling it what to do. To do so, a few characteristics are needed;

- Cooperation - Independence - Learning - Reasoning - Intelligence.

A software agent plays the role of an intelligent, dedicated and competent personal assistant for example; a secretary of a busy executive, or a medical assistant of an engaged physician.

Flexible manufacturing systems can definitely approve of intelligent systems, but development on the possibilities was not there until the year 2000, when Chang, Jiang and Tang did research on this topic. The conclusion of their study was that development of intelligent decision support tools for the design of FMS is now within the realms of possibility.

[edit] References

  • Turban, Leidner, McLean and Wetherbe: Information Technology for Management (2007).
  • Gregor & Benbasat; Explanations from Intelligent Systems; Theoretical Foundations and Implications for Practise (1999). MIS Quarterly, 23, 497-530
  • Turban & Watkins; Integrating Expert Systems and Decision Support Systems (1986). MIS Quarterly, 10, 121-136
  • Angern, A.A., & Luthi, H.J.: Intelligent Decision Support Systems: A visual interactive approach (1990). Interfaces, 20, 17-28.
  • Bui & Lee; An agent-based framework for building decision support systems (1999). Decision Support Systems, 25, 225-237
  • Chang, Jiang & Tang: The development of intelligent decision support tools to aid the design of flexible manufacturing systems (2000). International Journal of Production Economics, 65, 73-84.