Introduction (1)

• In modern manufacturing environments vast amounts of data are being collected in database management systems and data warehouses from all involved areas.
• Many knowledge-based components have also been added to (semi-) automate certain steps in manufacturing.
• A persistent problem is the gathering of the required expert knowledge to implement these knowledge-based components.
• Machine learning techniques can help in automating the time-consuming process of knowledge acquisition that is essential to the development of a knowledge-based system.