A rule‐base for the specification of manufacturing planning and control system activities

The accurate specification of user’s real requirements from manufacturing planning and control (MPC) systems is carried out very poorly throughout the industry. This paper describes a rule‐based system for the specification of MPC system activities. The rule‐base provides detailed recommendations on the suitability of system activities to individual companies based on company characteristics and management concerns. It also provides supporting reasons for the recommendations. This paper describes the development of the rule‐base from the initial conceptual framework to the fully tested and validated PC‐based application. The rule‐base has been fully tested and validated in ten small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) engaged in batch manufacturing. This paper describes the experiences of two of these case studies by way of example.