Dr. Factory(tm) And Cause-Mic: A Manufacturing Consultant Assistant And Its Modular Bayesian Belief Network Development And Execution Environment

This paper describes Dr. Factory, a knowledge-based system designed to assist manufacturing consultants in their diagnosis of problems and opportunities in relation to plant-level technology and associated business and management practices. This paper " describes Cause-MIC (Cause Modeling, Inference, and Construction), Dr. Factory's underlying knowledge representation, knowledge engineering interface and engine. Instead of using IF-THEN rules as in traditional expert systems, Dr. Factory's Knowledge Base is expressed in terms of a Bayesian Belief Network, which captures uncertain causal and evidential relations between various descriptors in a coherent manner strictly consistent with the axioms of probability theory. APPLICATION Using Cause-MIC, a modular Bayesian Belief Network development and execution environment developed at the Industrial Technology Institute (ref. 1), we have built Dr. Factory', a prototype knowledge-based system which is designed to operate as an intelligent assistant to a manufacturing consultant, specifically with respect to the identification of problems and opportunities in durable goods supplier firms. The knowledge base is composed of a set of descriptors representing the structure and components of the manufacturing firm, and the causal relationships between these descriptors. The descriptors include observations and evidential beliefs about phenomena as varied as customer satisfaction, employee training, scrap rate, and WIP level. The knowledge base has both theoretical and empirical sources. The theoretical source is a synthesis of conceptual models found in a literature search. The empirical source consists of case studies in the Frostbelt region, specifically small metal-cutting automotive supplier firms. These cases were examined by a..

Comprehensive Plan 2020 Silsbee, Texas

The plan is structured in three parts. First are base studies which provide fundamental information about the City. Second are the major plan components. Finally, an action plan summarizes recommendations and guides their implementation.Acquired data and analyzed in preparation for the comprehensive plan. Formulation of plan objectives was developed with a citizen survey, polling residents about their needs and desires for city growth and development. The plan includes discussion of the history, natural environment, population, and economy. Produced conceptual drawings for a new Silsbee City Hall, a new public library, a proposed business and recreational retreat area along Village Creek, and site plans for the redevelopment and adaptive reuse of the Silsbee Ice House. Design of the city center/plaza in Silsbee.Texas Target Communitie