Decision Support Systems

Decision Support Systems

Clyde W. Holsapple , in Encyclopedia of Information Systems, 2003

III.A. DSS Forerunners

One way to appreciate the characteristics of a DSS is to compare and contrast them with traits of two other major types of business computing systems: data processing systems and management information systems (MIS). Both predate the advent of computer-based decision support systems. All three share the trait of being concerned with record keeping. On the other hand, the three kinds of business computing systems differ in various ways, because each serves a different purpose in the management of an organization's knowledge resources

In the 1950s and 1960s, data processing (DP) systems dominated the field of business computing. Their main purpose was and is to automate the handling of large numbers of transactions. At the heart of a DP system lies a body of descriptive knowledge (i.e., data), which is a computerized record of what is known as a result of various transactions having happened. In addition, a DP system endows the computer with two major abilities related to this stored data: record keeping and transaction generation. The first enables the computer to keep the records up to date in light of incoming transactions. The second ability is concerned with the computerized production of outgoing transactions based on the stored descriptive knowledge, transmitted to such targets as customers, suppliers, employees, or governmental regulators. Administrators of a DP system are responsible for seeing that record keeping and transaction generation abilities are activated at proper times.

Unlike a DP system, the central purpose of MIS was and is to provide managers with periodic reports that recap certain predetermined aspects of an organization's past operations. Giving managers regular snapshots of what has been happening in the organization helps them in controlling their operations. Whereas DP is concerned with transforming transactions into records and generating transactions from records, the MIS concern with record keeping focuses on using this stored descriptive knowledge as a base for generating recurring standard reports. An MIS department typically is responsible for development, operation, and administration of DP systems and the MIS.

Information contained in standard reports from an MIS certainly can be factored into decision-making activities. When this is the case, an MIS could be fairly regarded as a kind of DSS. However, the nature of support it provides is very limited due to several factors: its reports are predefined, they tend to be issued periodically, and they are based only on descriptive knowledge. The situation surrounding a decision maker can be very dynamic. Except for the most structured kinds of decisions, information needs can arise unexpectedly and change more rapidly than an MIS can be built or revised by the MIS department.

Even when some needed information exists in a stack of reports accumulated from an MIS, it may be buried within other information held by a report, scattered across several reports, not presented in a fashion that is most helpful to the decision maker, or in need of further processing. Report generation by an MIS typically follows a set schedule. However, decisions that are not fully structured tend to be required at irregular intervals or unanticipated times. Knowledge needed for these decisions should be available on an ad hoc, spur-of-the-moment, basis. Another limit on an MIS's ability to support decisions stems from its exclusive focus on managing descriptive knowledge. Decision makers frequently need to manage procedural and/or reasoning knowledge as well. They need to integrate the use of these kinds of knowledge with ordinary descriptive knowledge.

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Decision Support Systems

J. Fox , in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001

2 Mathematical Methods and Decision Support Systems

If people demonstrate imperfect reasoning or decision making then it would presumably be desirable to support them with techniques that avoid errors and comply with rational rules. There is a vast amount of research on decision support systems that are designed to help people overcome their biases and limitations, and make decisions more knowledgeably and effectively. If we are to engineer computer systems to take decisions, it would seem clear that we should build those systems around theories that give us some appropriate guarantees of rationality. In a standard text on rational decision making, Lindley summarizes the 'correct' way to take decisions as follows:

… there is essentially only one way to reach a decision sensibly. First, the uncertainties present in the situation must be quantified in terms of values called probabilities. Second, the consequences of the courses of actions must be similarly described in terms of utilities. Third, that decision must be taken which is expected on the basis of the calculated probabilities to give the greatest utility. The force of 'must' used in three places is simply that any deviation from the precepts is liable to lead the decision maker to procedures which are demonstrably absurd. (Lindley 1985, p. vii)

The above viewpoint leads naturally to Expected Utility Theory (EUT) which is well established and very well understood mathematically. If its assumptions are satisfied and the expected utilities of alternative options are properly calculated, it can be argued that the procedure will reliably select the best decision. If people made more use of EUT in their work, it is said, this would result in more effective decision making. Doctors, for example, would make more accurate diagnoses, choose better treatments, and make better use of resources. Similar claims are made about the decision making of managers, politicians, and even juries in courts of law.

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Spatial Decision Support Systems

G. Rushton , in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001

Spatial decision support systems (SDSS) are computer-based systems that combine the geographic storage, search, and retrieval capabilities of geographic information systems with the decision models and optimizing algorithms used to support decision-making about spatial problems. Examples are political redistricting, selection of routes, facility location, and planning land uses. SDSS are used increasingly in both business and public sectors today. These systems allow decision makers to use 'multiple spatial criteria' in making locational choices by exploring alternatives in the spatial and the attribute solution space. In some SDSS, the user generates these spaces interactively. The capabilities of the SDSS then consist of the tools for manipulating the geographic information, and reporting the characteristic attributes of the outcomes. In other cases, instead of modeling the choices of individuals, the user of the SDSS directly participates in the choice evaluation process. Some SDSS incorporate methods for reconciling different views. In many situations, the assistance required by users of an SDSS lies in the knowledge of experts who are not available in person. Much of current research in SDSS entails capturing the knowledge of experts and incorporating it in the SDSS. The typical characteristics and functionalities of SDSS are becoming incorporated in social science theories and models that explain spatial decisions.

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Library management systems

Stuart Ferguson , Rodney Hebels , in Computers for Librarians (Third Edition), 2003

Decision support systems (DSS)

Decision support systems are sometimes confused with management information systems, but they are quite distinct. Whereas the latter provide predefined information to the manager, decision support systems (DSS) are used by the manager to predict actions based on a formal model of the organisation. There are various definitions in the literature. Indeed, the literature of the mid-1980s tended to use the terms 'management information system' and 'decision support system' interchangeably. Here the distinction between the terms is taken to be that whereas management information systems provide information, the manager uses a decision support system to manipulate information. Spreadsheet packages are typical decision support tools in a library environment, used to explore 'what if scenarios, for example, 'If the library cuts its printed serials budget by 10% over the next year, what would be the likely effect on document delivery services?'

Decision support systems are less structured than management information systems, and are based on a more or less formal model of the organisation and its relationship with its environment. The model may be a simple 'what if spreadsheet analysis of a budget or a more sophisticated model such as resource scheduling. Whereas data for a management information system are drawn mainly from internal sources (typically a data processing or 'transaction-oriented' system), a decision support system will draw its data from internal sources, such as data processing systems or management information systems, but also from external sources, such as user surveys.

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GIS Applications for Environment and Resources

Huang Xianjin , ... Zong Yueguang , in Comprehensive Geographic Information Systems, 2018

2.20.3 Decision Support System (DSS) for Land Use and Planning

A decision support system is a computer-based information system that supports government, business or organizational decision-making activities, typically resulting in ranking, sorting, or choosing from among alternatives. DSSs serve the management, operations, and planning levels of an organization (usually mid and higher management) and help people make decisions about problems that may be rapidly changing and not easily specified in advance—i.e., unstructured and semistructured decision problems (Cabrerizo et al., 2015 ). Decision support systems can be fully computerized, human-powered, or a combination of both computerized and human-powered. As a tool that is intended to support the analysis involved in decision-making processes, i.e., DSS, not to replace the human involvement, is used to support the process from technical implementation details, allowing the users to focus on the fundamental value judgments ( Ferrández et al., 2015).

2.20.3.1 Basic Structure and Typical Type of DSS

2.20.3.1.1 The basic structure of the decision support system

Decision support system is based on the data warehouse, through query tools and analysis tools to complete the extraction of information to meet the various needs of users. The entire data warehouse system is composed of data source, data extraction, storage, management, and data performance. The data source is the foundation of data warehouse system, storing the data source of the whole system, usually including internal and external information (Swobodzinski and Jankowski, 2015). Data extraction and transformation is the entrance of the data into the warehouse; it is processed through the extraction process data from the online transaction processing system, external data sources, and offline data storage media into the data warehouse. Data storage and management is the core of the entire data warehouse system. The organization and management of data warehouse determine that it is different from the traditional database, as well as the form of its external data. To decide on the types of products and technologies required to build the core of the data warehouse, one needs to start from the technical characteristics of the data warehouse analysis (Gorgan, 2015). Front-end tools include a variety of reporting tools, query tools, data analysis tools, data mining tools, and a variety of data warehouses or data marts-based application development tools. The front-end analysis tools run on the client; their main function is to provide multidimensional data query and analysis operations to achieve the purpose of decision support. It focuses on decision support for decision-makers and executives, and provides quick and flexible access to the results of queries and complex analysis operations in an intuitive and easy-to-understand manner at the request of analysts, enabling decision makers to discover hidden data in multidimensional data and internal useful information, so as to accurately grasp the business situation and make the right decisions (Camacho-Collados and Liberatore, 2015).

2.20.3.1.2 Spatial decision support system

A spatial decision support system (SDSS) is an interactive, computer-based system designed to assist in decision-making while solving a semistructured spatial problem. It is designed to assist the spatial planner with guidance in making land-use decisions. A system which models decisions could be used to help identify the most effective decision path. SDSS is sometimes referred to as a policy support system, and it comprises a DSS and a GIS. This entails use of a database management system (DMS), which holds and handles the geographical data; a library of potential models that can be used to forecast the possible outcomes of decisions; and an interface to aid the users interact with the computer system and to assist in analysis of outcomes. It usually exists in the form of a computer model or collection of interlinked computer models, including a land-use model. Although various techniques are available to simulate land-use dynamics, two types are particularly suitable for SDSS. These are cellular automata (CA)-based models (White and Engelen, 2000) and agent-based models (ABM) (Parker et al., 2003). SDSS typically uses a variety of spatial and nonspatial information, like data on land use, transportation, water management, demographics, agriculture, climate, epidemiology, resource management, or employment. By using two or more known points in history, the models can be calibrated and then can be used to predict the future according to different spatial policy options. By using these techniques, spatial planners can investigate the effects of different scenarios and provide information to make informed decisions.

2.20.3.2 DSS Application in China' Land Use and Planning

There is no standard definition for conventional DSS. SDSS is a combination of GIS technology (Hu and Sheng, 2014), which is composed of spatial databases, spatial decision support, and other spatial data processing including man–machine interface, spatial database, model library, knowledge base, and method library. Nowadays, the SDSS has been applied in agriculture, geological disaster prevention, land-use planning, urban planning, and many other industries and fields which need a large amount of decision support. The scholars have carried on a lot of research and practice.

Currently, China has established a land-use planning information system, but there are semistructured problems involved in planning decision-making, such as massive geographical environmental data. A large number of analysis models and planning scheme and optimization problems formed on this basis. The integration of the two, SDSS and land-use planning system, is necessary to solve practical problems. Its powerful function can assist to analyze, simulate, forecast, and provide scientific decision support for the evolution of land use, and can improve the accuracy of planning information and scientific decision-making (Chen et al., 2011) ( Fig. 6 ).

Fig. 6. Comparison of decision-making software.

Currently, it has made a huge progress in the application of computer technology, GIS, and model method to the overall land-use planning at the county level, as well as to build a DSS for planning and aiding the preparation of decision-making support in China. The applications include several aspects. First, using a variety of computer language mixed programming, and development of land-use master planning computer-aided system, to achieve the Chinese display and map input and output of the Chinese characters (Enman, 1990). Second, using the system theory and system engineering method, together with the multiple disciplines, the conventional method and the modeling method, the GIS and the computer technology, from the qualitative to the quantitative synthesis, to construct the land-use overall plan decision support system (LUPDSS) (Chen et al., 2005). The system consists of database, knowledge base, model method library, man–machine dialogue and other subsystems, which provides a new and effective tool for the preparation and revision of land-use planning. Third, based on spatial information system design and development mode, the land-use situation and land suitability factor spatial database are completed (La Rosa et al., 2014). Integrated land suitability index comprehensive evaluation model, complete the visualization of land suitability evaluation and land use reform decision support space information system. For land management, planning and local conditions to rational use of land resources to provide spatial analysis and simulation prediction. Fourth, the land-use management decision support system software is developed based on Windows system. The mathematical models of land-use analysis, evaluation, forecast, and structure optimization are developed as well as the data of land use Library (Huang and Ma, 2014). The developed system not only can manage a large number of complex land resources data and carry out the necessary spatial analysis, but also can assist regional land-use management decision-making activities. Fifth, a decision support system for land-use planning based on multiagent is proposed (Ma et al., 2006). A prototype system is developed by using Agent-oriented software. Also, the decision support of land-use planning is realized. Sixth, the planning and layout model based on the knowledge base system is put forward (Yin and Zhu, 2009). On the Visual CH platform, the land-use planning aided design and revision system is developed based on component GIS, which realizes the semiintelligent land acquisition by computer.

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Natural Resource Management

H. Michael Rauscher , Keith M. Reynolds , in Encyclopedia of Information Systems, 2003

II.C. Decision Support Systems for Prescriptive Knowledge Management

Decision support systems (DSS) help managers make decisions in situations where human judgment is an important contributor to the problem-solving process, but where limitations in human information processing impede decision making. The goal of a DSS is to amplify the power of the decision makers without usurping their right to use human judgment and make choices. They attempt to bring together the intellectual flexibility and imagination of humans with the speed, accuracy, and tirelessness of the computer.

Decision support systems may contain a number of subsystems, each with a specific task (Fig. 3). The first, and most important, is the subsystem composed of the decision maker(s). Decision makers are consciously diagrammed as part of the DSS because without their guidance, there is no DSS. The group negotiation management subsystem helps decision makers organize their ideas, formulate relationships surrounding issues and arguments, and refine their understanding of the problem and their own value systems. Examples of group negotiation tools include: the active response Geographic Information System (AR/GIS) and the issue-based information system (IBIS). Group negotiation tools are used to construct issue-based argument structures to clarify the values and preferences of group members in the attempt to reach group consensus. For example, IBIS uses formal argument logic (the logic of questions and answers) as a way to diagram and elucidate argumentative thinking. By asking and answering crucial questions, you can begin to better understand the problem and its solution set. Decision support systems should specifically employ mechanisms by which the biological realities guide and, if appropriate, constrain the desires of the stakeholders. For example, compromise is not acceptable for some issues. If the productive capacity of an ecosystem is fixed yet key stakeholders all want to extract a product from that ecosystem at a higher level, a compromise midway between the levels will be unsustainable.

Fig. 3. The major components of a generic DSS.

The next major subsystem, spatial and non-spatial data management, organizes the available descriptions of the ecological and management components of natural resource management. Data must be available to support choices among alternative management scenarios and to forecast consequences of management activities on the landscape. There is a trade-off between the increasing number of goals that decision makers and stakeholders value and the high cost of obtaining data and understanding relationships that support these choices. Monitoring both natural and anthropogenic disturbance activities and disturbance-free dynamics of managed forest ecosystems are also extremely important if a DSS is to accurately portray the decision choices and their consequences. Barring blind luck, the quality of the decision cannot be better than the quality of the knowledge behind it. Poor data can lead to poor decisions. It is difficult to conceive of prudent natural resource management without an adequate biophysical description of the land base in question.

The next three subsystems—hypertext, knowledge-base, and simulation model management—deal with effectively managing knowledge in the many diverse forms in which it is stored, represented, or coded. These systems have been covered in more detail in the preceding sections. The simulation model management subsystem of the DSS is designed to provide a consistent framework into which models of many different origins and styles can be placed so the decision makers can use them to analyze, forecast, and understand elements of the decision process. The knowledge management subsystem of the DSS is designed to organize all available knowledge-based models in a uniform framework to support the decision-making process. The software subsystems of a DSS described so far help decision makers organize the decision problem, formulate alternatives, and analyze their future consequences. The decision methods management subsystem (Fig. 3) provides tools and guidance for choosing among the alternatives, for performing sensitivity analysis to identify the power of specific variables to change the ranking of alternatives, and for recording the decisions made and their rationale.

There are many facets or dimensions that influence the decision-making process. The rational/technical dimension, which concerns itself with the mathematical formulation of the methods of choice and their uses, is the one most often encountered in the decision science literature. But there are others including the political/power dimension and the value/ethical dimension.

Decision makers might find themselves at any point along the political/power dimension bounded by a dictatorship (one person decides) on the one extreme and by anarchy (no one can decide) on the other. Intermediate positions are democracy (majority decides), republicanism (selected representatives decide), and technocracy/aristocracy (experts or members of a ruling class decide). Currently three approaches seem to be in use at multiple-societal temporal and spatial scales: management by experts (technocracy), management by legal prescription (republicanism), and management by collaboration (democracy). No one approach predominates. In fact, the sharing of power between these three approaches creates tensions which help make natural resource management a very difficult problem. In the context of natural resource management, the value/ethical dimension might be defined on the one extreme by the preservationist ethic (reduce consumption and let nature take its course) and on the other by the exploitation ethic (maximum yield now and let future generations take care of themselves). Various forms of the conservation ethic (use resources, but use them wisely) could be defined between these two extremes. The rational/technological dimension is defined by the normative/rational methods on the one hand and the expert/intuitive methods on the other. Numerous intermediate methods also have been described and used. The formal relationships between these dimensions affecting the decision process have not been worked out.

Informally, it is easy to observe decision-making situations where the political/power or value/ethical dimensions dominate the rational/technical dimension. Choosing an appropriate decision-making method is itself a formidable task that influences both the design of alternatives and the final choice. Many DSSs do not offer a decision methods subsystem due to the complexity and sensitivity of the subject matter. Unfortunately, providing no formal support in DSSs for choosing among alternatives simply places all the burden on the users and may make them more vulnerable to challenges of their process and choice mechanisms.

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28th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering

Edrisi Muñoz , ... Luis Puigjaner , in Computer Aided Chemical Engineering, 2018

Abstract

Decision support systems must provide the tools for effective problem management thus improving the whole decision process, from problem conception to solution implementation. However, model creation heavily depends on the modeler's expertise and the problem conception. This work focuses on automating the problem modeling and creating semantically enriched models. As a result, the modeler is supported in the modeling process. An automated modeling platform is developed, which encompasses mathematical models, their formal representation and the semantic model of the represented system. In addition, intelligent agents are designed in order to provide additional reasoning capabilities and create case rules for model creation, problem application storage and usage. A case study is performed using a scheduling modeling and solution example. Specifically, a systematic approach to scheduling model selection and solution implementation is achieved, thus enabling the bridge between theoretical developments and industrial practice.

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21st European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering

Edrisi Muñoz , ... Luis Puigjaner , in Computer Aided Chemical Engineering, 2011

1 Introduction

Decision Support Systems (DSS) are directly or indirectly related to manufacturing indicators, like economic efficiency, product quality, flexibility, reliability, etc. Global competition has made essential for the viability of the enterprise the use of such DSS, and the need for development of new tools to integrate the different time and scale levels involved have been highlighted. The first requirement to achieve such integration is to define standardized information structures and more sophisticated information tools to exploit them, in order to improve the availability and communication of data between different decision levels and also the models behind the corresponding decision support tools. In this framework, the role of infrastructures that continuously and coherently support fast and reliable decision-making activities related to the production process is now of paramount importance ( Venkatasubramanian et al., 2006). The use of an ontology is proposed, as a formal specification, that is a body of formally represented knowledge based on conceptualizations, which are abstract, simplified views of the physical or procedural elements. The ontology elements should be part of the model intended to represent a system for some purpose, managing the relationships that hold among the elements of the model, allowing this model to be usable (Gruber, 2008). On the other hand, reusing ontologies is far from being an automated process. It requires not only consideration of the ontology, but also of the tasks for which it is intended. The key for the presented ontology reusability is that it lies on the basis of the standard ANSI/ISA 88 (International Society for Measurement and Control, 2001). In general, this standard should facilitate building larger, better and cheaper systems. It should also lead to a greater dissemination of these systems.

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29th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering

Edrisi Munoz , ... Luis Puigjaner , in Computer Aided Chemical Engineering, 2019

2 Proposal description

Decision Support Systems (DSS) are information technology solutions that can be used to support complex decision-making and problem solving. DSS are defined as aid computer systems at the management company level that combine data and sophisticated analytic models for support decision-making (Simon and Murray, 2007). Classic DSS design is comprised of components for (i) sophisticated database management capabilities with access to internal and external data, information, and knowledge; (ii) modeling functions accessed by a model management system, (iii) simple user interface designs that enable interactive queries, reporting, and graphing functions, and (iv) optimization by mathematic algorithms and or intuition/knowledge.

This work is based on formal knowledge technologies, which allow working in a semantical environment where machines can understand domain and human knowledge. Besides, the development of models and solution strategies to tackle the decision-making from a broad perspective has been the result of integration and collaboration from areas, such as, Process Systems Engineering (PSE), Information Technologies and Communications (ITC), and Operations Research (OR).

Thus, the proposed approach can be generally stated as follows. Given a formal domain knowledge model, the following information must be captured in order to obtain semantically system features: i) Production system characterization comprising Physical, Procedural and Recipe (Site & General) models; ii) Products to be produced according to the processing order activity in the industry recipes defining the production requirements and production path for the products in the Physical, Process and Recipe (Master & Control) models, and; iii) Resource availability and plant status provided by the process management and production information management activities, as shown in Figure 1, Part I-A and Part I-AA.

Figure 1

Figure 1. Intelligent system characterization and problem definition procedure diagram.

The main goal consists on create an enriched problem statement. Thus the following nine steps have been automated comprising: definition of the process system from tactical, strategic and operational views (see Figure 1, Part II - a); an algorithm for monitoring key process features (isolated or integrated) for detecting abnormal or problem situations (see Figure 1, Part II - b); an option for choosing among economical, time or other aim solution perspective (see Figure 1, Part II - c); important relations among problem and direct features in the system are stated (see Figure 1, Part II - d); decision variables, assumptions of the process and the engineering metrics are suggested by the proposal and chosen by the user (see Figure 1, Part II - c, d and e); finally a sematic enriched problem statement is obtained (see Figure 1, Part II - h and i)

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Operations Management

Chen H. Chung , in Encyclopedia of Information Systems, 2003

II.B. Decision Supports for Operations Strategy

Although strategic decision support systems (SDSS) have received substantial attention in the literature, very few SDSS are specifically designed based on a particular competitive strategy. While a general SDSS may have the advantage of being flexible, a support system which is developed based on a particular competitive strategy will better facilitate the implementation of that strategy. Figure 2 is a general framework for SDSS. The framework consists of four subsystems of a general DSS: user interface subsystem (UIS), problem processing subsystem (PPS), knowledge subsystem (KS), and subsystem interface management software (SIMS). The support for strategic decision making is performed by several programs within these subsystems. For example, there is a missions/goals elicitation program in the UIS. There are strategic problem descriptions and ad hoc strategic problem processing programs in the PPS. In the model base of the KS, there are strategic planning models, environmental scanning models, scenario planning models, technological forecasting models, etc.

Figure 2. A framework for strategic decision support systems. [Adapted from Chung et al. (1989). Omega, 17(2), 135-146.]

Decision supports for operations strategy can be built upon the above SDSS framework. For example, Cook and colleagues incorporate a TBC model called CCP—change, causation, and possibility—in the above SDSS. The CCP model is a cycle of three-stage tasks. The environmental scanning model of the SDSS is to constantly monitor the changes in both the firm's external and internal environments. Diagnostic problem-solving systems or expert systems will perform causal analysis upon the relevant and significant changes detected in the first stage. Based on the results of causal analyses, creativity facilitation systems and scenario planning systems will then search for meaningful changes and the associated possible scenarios. The scenario-driven planning (SDP) process paves the way for the implementation of (TBC-based) operations strategy.

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