The General Motors Variation-Reduction Adviser

The General Motors Variation-Reduction Adviser is a knowledge system built on case-based reasoning principles that is currently in use in eighteen General Motors asssembly centers. This article reviews the overall characteristics of the system and then focuses on various AI elements critical to support its deployment to a production system. A key AI enabler is ontology-guided search using domainspecific ontologies. The primary use of VRA is to improve communication in the plants and between plants to assist with problem solving necessary to keep the line producing the highest quality products. Our original prototype was tested by a "dimensional management" team working on "variation reduction" problems in a plant.