Structured modeling approach to modelbase management system in a decision support system

Abstract

General Decision support Systems first appeared in the early 1970's. Though a MIS might alert a manager to the fact that a problem existed, it was felt that it did not necessarily help in solving it. There was obviously a need for system which included analytical models that could be applied to a given problem as an aid to its solution. The distinguishing feature of a DSS is the model base. This may contain operational research, management science, statistical models and others. The manager is able to choose a model appropriate to the problem in hand and with their requisite data, receive help in finding a solution. They were particularly useful in tactical decision-making when they first appeared, but can now be found at all levels of the organization. The distinction between a structured and unstructured decision is incorporated in the following conventional definition of a Decision Support System. "Decision Support system is an interactive computer based system which helps decision makers to utilize data and models to solve unstructured problems." It is clear, (see fig) that a DSS consists of a modelbase management system, a database, a database management system and dialogue generation management system (user interface). At the present time the greatest technical difficulty is with the model based management system (MBMS). Unlike the relational database management system (RDBMS), there is no commercially available MBMS that can encompass a wide variety of models and integrate them with the same ease as a RDBMS can handle data. In this poster paper we have presented, how a structured modeling can be viewed in MBMS. A simple transportation model is considered as an example to illustrate the method.