UTILIZING A KNOWLEDGE-BASED DECISION-SUPPORT SYSTEM AS TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT

Interest in the design and implementation of total quality management programmes to enhance productivity and quality has increased greatly in a wide variety of organizations. Although there is general agreement on the need for top management support for quality improvement activities, few mechanisms have existed to assist management in providing inputs into the development of such programmes. In many cases, external consultants have been employed to assist these managers with recommendations for TQM deployment. This paper describes a decision support system with an imbedded expert system to assist the manager, or a managerial team, in both assessing areas to target for improvement and in selecting TQM tools and techniques which are appropriate for the organization. The logic of the expert system as consultant is explained along with particulars of the decision support system.