An Examination of the Impact of Expert Systems on the Firm: The Case of XCON.

Author List: Sviokla, John J.;
MIS Quarterly, 1990, Volume 14, Issue 2, Page 127-140.
The article discusses the use of expert system XCON and the execution of the task it was designed to support in Digital Equipment Corporation. XCON is their expert system for configuring PDP and VAX computers. The author states that the implementation of the XCON altered the roles and responsibilities of the technical editors. The system helped eliminate an entire step within the company's manufacturing process and saved Digital an estimated $15 million. The study presented in the article draws upon the concepts of organizational information processing and shows that the use of XCON increased the information processing capacity of the organization. The author states that the system also provided for a company-wide shift in the process of configuring.
Keywords: Expert systems;knowledge-based systems;artificial intelligence;organizational impacts;technology impacts;organizational information processing;xcon;manufacturing systems
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#65 0.208 article information author discusses comments technology paper presents states explains editor's authors issue focuses topics include suggests systems role editorial
#282 0.161 power perspective process study rational political perspectives politics theoretical longitudinal case social rationality formation construction shows multiple instead understanding fact
#231 0.135 information management data processing systems corporate article communications organization control distributed department capacity departments major user hardware cost applications expansion
#178 0.117 digital divide use access artifacts internet inequality libraries shift library increasingly everyday societies understand world initiative initiatives embedded community dimensions
#119 0.098 implementation systems article describes management successful approach lessons design learned technical staff used effort developed organization experiences large managing discusses
#129 0.068 expert systems knowledge knowledge-based human intelligent experts paper problem acquisition base used expertise intelligence domain inductive rules machine artificial task
#40 0.054 increased increase number response emergency monitoring warning study reduce messages using reduced decreased reduction decrease act sessions cost good key