Expert Provisioner: a range management aid

Expert Provisioner is a knowledge-based provisioning system prototyped for use by the RAF Logistics Command to support their Range Managers in the procurement of consumable parts. It was jointly developed by AIAI at the University of Edinburgh and Logistics Research (LR) branch of the RAF. Spares re-provisioning is one of the most fundamental and difficult logistics processes. Any item of equipment will need to have some of its component parts replaced at some time during its operational life. Re-provisioning is the art of ensuring that spare parts are available when required without tying up much needed capital in excessive inventory holdings. To conduct re-provisioning properly requires a great deal of specific knowledge about item characteristics and customer requirements, coupled with a high level of expertise in re-provisioning procedures. The RAF has lost many of its most experienced Range Managers in the last few years. To address this situation the knowledge based system (KBS) entitled “Expert Provisioner” is being developed. The starting point for Expert Provisioner is an electronic purchase order form and its end point is a recommendation of whether to buy the item or not, its cost and due delivery date. Purchase recommendations are made based on many factors including forecast demand, unit costs, shelf life and existing stock levels. The system removes much of the mundane work in order processing as well as potential for misinterpretation of information. The system is designed such that the user remains in control throughout the consultation and can, if desired, override decisions. Expert Provisioner was implemented using the NASA CLIPS development tool for the inference engine and knowledge base. The system was developed and delivered under Windows 3.1 through the use of AIAI's multi-platform wxCLIPS tool for the user interface. The benefits identified and proved through the development of the Expert Provisioner prototype are: improved speed and accuracy of the data checking and order quantity calculation processes; automatic recording of provisioning history data for use in Financial Management/Analysis; and finally the ability to allow trainees to work on real life problems and compare their results with the experts. Having proved the benefits to be gained by a KBS, the next stage is to move to the Expert Provisioner production model. This will initially be developed to handle consumables for a single aircraft, but eventually, it will be rolled out for all aircraft and its functionality will be expanded to include repairable items as well as consumables.