. In 2012, D&J Components, a manufacturer of truck gear box components, develope
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Question
. In 2012, D&J Components, a manufacturer of truck gear box components, developed and installed an expert system to design several types of component, and to feed the design specifications directly into the machines that produce the components. The system ensures optimum design and quality of the components, and has reduced the cost of designing and producing them.
a. Briefly explain the concept of an expert system and its major components
b. Choose 2 of Porter’s competitive forces, and explain how D&J Components’ current use of the expert system might be helping to combat them.
Explanation / Answer
An expert system is an example of a knowledge-based system. They were the first commercial systems to use a knowledge-based architecture. The knowledge base represents facts about the world. Its purpose is to use facts and rules, taken from the knowledge of many human experts in a particular field, to help make decisions and solve problems. It is typically composed of three primary components. These are the inference engine, the knowledge base, and the user interface.
Inference Engine - It acts like a search engine, examining the knowledge base for information that matches the user's query.
Knowledge Base - This is a collection of facts and rules. The knowledge base is created from information provided by human experts.
User Interface - It is the method by which the expert system interacts with a user. These can be through dialog boxes, command prompts, forms, or other input methods. Some expert systems interact with other computer applications, and do not interact directly with a human. It allows a non-expert user to query the expert system, and to receive advice. The user-interface is designed to be a simple to use as possible.
Porter's Five Forces Framework is a tool for analyzing competition of a business. They consist of those forces close to a company that affect its ability to serve its customers and make a profit. A change in any of the forces normally requires a business unit to re-assess the marketplace given the overall change in industry information. The overall industry attractiveness does not imply that every firm in the industry will return the same profitability. Firms are able to apply their core competencies, business model or network to achieve a profit above the industry average. The five forces are:
Competitive Rivalry : This looks at the number and strength of your competitors.
Supplier Power : This is determined by how easy it is for your suppliers to increase their prices. How many potential suppliers are there. The more you have to choose from, the easier it will be to switch to a cheaper alternative but if there are fewer suppliers their position will be stronger and they will have the ability to charge more.
Buyer Power : How many buyers are there and how big are their orders. When you deal with only a few savvy customers, they have more power, but your power increases if you have many customers.
Threat of Substitution : This refers to the likelihood of your customers finding a different way of doing what you do. For example, if you supply a unique software product that automates an important process, people may substitute it by doing the process manually or by outsourcing it. A substitution that is easy and cheap to make can weaken your position and threaten your profitability.
Threat of New Entry : The position can be affected by people's ability to enter the market. It it takes little money and effort to enter the market and compete effectively then rivals can quickly enter the market and weaken your position. If you have strong and durable barriers to entry, then you can preserve a favorable position and take fair advantage of it.
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