A number of unique features distinguish this book from all the other expert systems and expert systems in manufacturing books. First, it is aimed at technology development managers rather than academics or hackers. It therefore concentrates on those business and organizational issues that must be resolved in the successful application of expert systems to manufacturing problems. The authors demonstrate the resolution of many of these issues. Second, the book is easy to read quickly, because the text highlights key lessons, such as “Changes in key business goals or practices should not be a surprise…Using an experimental or evolving tool which has not reached its mature state will cause project delays.…” Many of these lessons echo the experience of others in expert systems or any state-of-the-art software development project. Reading the book will save managers new to the area from learning these lessons the hard way. The third unique feature of the book is that it includes a large number of case studies of expert systems projects implemented within DEC, warts and all. It is unusual for a case study–based book to include real industrial application cases and for both failures and successes to be so completely documented.

The book has three parts. It begins with a brief introduction to expert systems development. The second part presents the case material, with a chapter devoted to each case. The cases cover many of the opportunities for expert systems applications in manufacturing, including scheduling and manufacturing control assistants, systems for management of the building and sale of obsolete products and the associated inventory, operations consulting, and the integration of expert systems solutions with more conventional systems into large organization-wide systems. The closing four chapters draw together the lessons highlighted in the case studies to focus on the issues in problem selection, prototype development, and the migration from a prototype to an expert system operating in the business environment.

This book is one of the few expert systems works that will repay more than a casual perusal. Many technology project managers will profit by sharing the lessons learned by DEC and presented so candidly in the text.