Bidder´s Associate: a case-based reasoning system to improve cost estimates of manufactured products

Klein Associates is building a software system that will aid the bidder in writing a successful bid for a new solicitation. The software is called Bidder´s Associate and is a prototype for a Dayton manufacturing firm which has a database containing approximately 1000 previously built products. Approximately 200 of these products have been made more than once and are likely to be solicited again. Although the data for previously built products are stored on a mainframe computer, the access by the bidder´s current system is cumbersome and inefficient. Bidder´s Associate aids the bidder in three ways: (1) accessing an appropriate product from the firm´s data base; (2) adjusting bid cost estimates on the basis of the retrieved product´s cost data; (3) producing a final bid for the current solicitation