Abstract:

In this paper we describe a rather unusual decision support system which has been developed to help managers to take various kinds of resource allocation decisions, has a knowledge base which comprises causal models and it has an optimisation based inference engine. The knowledge base is parameterised by an interaction with one managers who feed in a combination of "hard" information and their own "gut-feel" . The system can be used for allocating, for example, space in retail outlets, pages A number of The system or more in mail order catalogues, sales forces, etc. practical examples are given of the use of the tool by managers of different companies for different kinds of allocation decisions.