Analysis of expert systems in manufacturing design

Features of expert systems applied in manufacturing design are presented. Three issues in expert systems, namely, knowledge representation, knowledge acquisition, and inference strategy, are briefly discussed. The tandem architecture of expert systems, which allows for close interaction of the inference engine with a set of models and algorithms, is outlined. Four design problems in manufacturing systems, namely, part design, process planning, equipment selection, and facility layout, are identified. Existing expert systems developed for the design problems are surveyed.