Manufacturing Decision-support using Interactive Meta-Goal Programming.

The benefits of Collaborative Manufacturing (CM) are widely recognized both by the industry and the academic world. However, the engagement of CM for Small and Medium Manufacturing Enterprises (SMMEs) has proven to be a challenging task due to reoccurring complex decision-making processes toward the attainment of strategic objectives for CM. The focus of this paper is thus to propose an Interactive Meta-Goal Programming (IMGP) based decision-support framework to facilitate the decision-making processes for CM. The proposed framework will have a critical positive impact on the operation of SMMEs engaging in CM, as the accuracy and efficiency of their collaborative decision-making processes will be significantly improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]