SUCCESS FACTORS FOR MANUFACTURING EXPERT-SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

As a testimony to their success, the use of Expert Systems (ES) has increased dramatically within and among manufacturing organizations. As the investment in this important area grows, so does the need for an assessment of their value. IBM's Corporate Manufacturing Expert Systems Project Center collected information from 55 project managers regarding the level of user satisfaction and six of the important factors leading to ES development success. Based on the existing literature, six hypotheses regarding the determinants of ES development success as measured by user satisfaction were tested. The results clearly support the proposed relationships between the variables and suggest the need for ES project managers to pay special attention to these determinants of user satisfaction with ES. The report provides recommendations to ES project managers for enhancing the likelihood of project success.