Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
the appropriate data or parameters, and the expert system provides output to the problem or
situation. Table 11.3 lists a few expert system products.
Table 11.3
Name of Product
Application and Capabilities
Popular Expert System
Products
G2
Assists in oil and gas operations. Transco, a British company, uses
it to help in the transport of gas to more than 20 million commercial
and domestic customers.
HazMat Loader
Analyzes hazardous materials in truck shipments
Imprint Business
Systems
This company has an expert system that helps printing and packaging
companies manage their businesses (
www.imprint-mis.co.uk).
Lantek Expert
System
Helps metal fabricators reduce waste and increase profits
(
www.lantek.es
).
RAMPART
Developed by Sandia National Laboratories, the U.S. General Services
Administration (GSA) uses it to analyze risk to the approximately 8,000
federal buildings it manages (
www.sandia.gov).
Applications of Expert Systems and Artificial Intelligence
Expert systems and artificial intelligence have wide applications in business and government.
A few additional applications of expert systems that are being used today or have been used
in the past are summarized next.
•
Credit granting and loan analysis.
KPMG Peat Marwick uses an expert system called
Loan Probe to review its reserves to determine whether sufficient funds have been set
aside to cover the risk of some uncollectible loans.
•
Catching cheats and terrorists.
Some gambling casinos use expert system software to
catch gambling cheats.
•
Plant layout and manufacturing.
FLEXPERT was an expert system that uses fuzzy logic
to perform plant layout. The software helped companies determine the best placement
for equipment and manufacturing facilities.
•
Hospitals and medical facilities.
Hospitals, pharmacies, and other healthcare providers
can use Alineo by MEDecision to determine possible high-risk or high-cost patients.
MYCIN is an expert system developed at Stanford University to analyze blood infections.
UpToDate is another expert system used to diagnose patients. To help doctors in the
diagnosis of thoracic pain, MatheMEDics has developed THORASK, a straightforward,
easy-to-use program, requiring only the input of carefully obtained clinical information.
The program helps the less experienced to distinguish the three principal categories of
chest pain from each other.
•
Employee performance evaluation.
An expert system developed by Austin-Hayne, called
Employee Appraiser, provides managers with expert advice for use in employee per-
formance reviews and career development.
•
Repair and maintenance.
ACE is an expert system used by AT&T to analyze the
maintenance of telephone networks. IET-Intelligent Electronics uses an expert system to
diagnose maintenance problems related to aerospace equipment. General Electric Aircraft
Engine Group uses an expert system to enhance maintenance performance levels at all
sites and improve diagnostic accuracy.
•
Shipping.
CARGEX cargo expert system is used by Lufthansa, a German airline, to help
determine the best shipping routes.
•
Marketing.
CoverStory is an expert system that extracts marketing information from a
database and automatically writes marketing reports.
