Existing manual mode of manufacturing planning is now being recognized as a critical link in our manufacturing sector's drive for total quality-integrated-productivity attainment through the implementation of "paperless" factory operations. There is a pressing need to capture knowledge base of experienced planners, incorporate this knowledge into an "intelligent planning assistant" serving both as an expert system for the planning process and as a self-help tutor for new or lesser experienced planner, and integrate this "intelligent assistant" into a manufacturing homeostasis for self-adaptive learning based upon experiences from the production floor. The objective of this project is to develop these capabilities.
