An integrated system for manufacturing enterprise

A discussion is presented on the Stanford Integrated Manufacturing Enterprise Management System (SIMEMS), which was developed to provide intelligent decision support for planning and control of operation decision processes and also to provide a link between such decision processes and strategic considerations at the enterprise level so as to yield a competitive advantage. The system is developed to achieve several aspects of integration: integration among functional units within the organization in coordinating operational planning and control; integration of operational policies with strategic position; and integration of systems, AI, and operations research techniques in problem solving. In addition to providing intelligent management decision support for manufacturing enterprise, SIMEMS can be regarded as a prototype example of a powerful modeling technique in support of complex problem solving processes