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Artificial intelligence and expert systems applications in new product development—a survey

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Abstract

The authors review and categorize the research in applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and expert systems (ES) in new product development (NPD) activities. A brief overview of NPD process and AI is presented. This is followed by a literature survey in regard to AI and ES applications in NPD, which revealed twenty four articles (twenty two applications) in the 1990–1997 period. The applications are categorized into five areas: expert decision support systems for NPD project evaluation, knowledge-based systems (KBS) for product and process design, KBS for QFD, AI support for conceptual design and AI support for group decision making in concurrent engineering. Brief review of each application is provided. The articles are also grouped by NPD stages and seven NPD core elements (competencies and abilities). Further research areas are pointed out.

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Rao, S.S., Nahm, A., Shi, Z. et al. Artificial intelligence and expert systems applications in new product development—a survey. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing 10, 231–244 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008943723141

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