Computers in Industry 43 Ž2000.

31–41
www.elsevier.nlrlocatercompind

Using inductive machine learning to support decision making in

machining processes
Bogdan Filipicˇ a,b,) , Mihael Junkar b
a
ˇ Stefan Institute, JamoÕa 39, SI-1000 Ljubljana, SloÕenia
Department of Intelligent Systems, Jozef
b
ˇ ˇ 6, SI-1000 Ljubljana, SloÕenia
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, UniÕersity of Ljubljana, AskerceÕa
Received 8 August 1997; received in revised form 1 June 1999; accepted 1 February 2000

Abstract

In spite of their practical success, knowledge-based systems still suffer from considerable limitations. Specialized for
problem solving in a narrow domain, most systems possess very limited knowledge and are rather inflexible. Moreover,
building a knowledge base is the most critical phase in developing an expert system. In overcoming these limitations,
existing machine learning techniques, capable of deriving concepts from data, can be effectively applied. This work focuses
on machine learning from examples and its potential in discovering knowledge hidden in technological databases. Practically
oriented studies of automating two-decision procedures related to machining processes are presented: classification of
dielectric fluids used in electrical discharge machining, and tool selection in an industrial grinding process. The results show
the approach is beneficial in preventing poor process performance and improving product quality. It also allows for better
understanding of the processes at the shop floor level, and advances decision making at the technology planning level.
q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Inductive machine learning; Technological databases; Decision support; Electrical discharge machining ŽEDM.; Grinding

1. Introduction ment of knowledge processing technology, play a

Knowledge processing technology has changed
computers from high-speed data manipulators to
highly specialized problem solvers. Knowledge-based
systems nowadays assist people in carrying out de-
manding technical and business tasks in a variety of
sectors. Expert systems, the most prominent achieve-
) fers from some considerable limitations. Most of the
Corresponding author. Department of Intelligent Systems,
ˇ Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Jozef
Tel.: q386-1-477-33-52; fax: q386-1-425-1038.
E-mail address: bogdan.filipic@ijs.si ŽB. Filipicˇ..
decisive role in managing resources, shortening de-
sign and production times, improving the quality of
products and services, and reducing costs in numer-
ous settings w4x. Among the users are manufacturing
companies that employ expert systems to assist in
decision making and to release human operators
from routine low-level tasks w11x.
In spite of its widespread use and commercial
success, knowledge processing technology still suf-
systems to date have been intended for operation in a
narrow domain and therefore possess a limited seg-
ment of expert knowledge. Consequently, they are

0166-3615r00r$ - see front matter q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 1 6 6 - 3 6 1 5 Ž 0 0 . 0 0 0 5 6 - 7
32 ˇ M. Junkarr Computers in Industry 43 (2000) 31–41
B. Filipic,
very sensitive and inflexible when faced with a
problem not perfectly fitting into the predefined do-
main. The technology also does not scale up linearly,
hence, extending the capabilities of a small-scale
knowledge-based system may be a very demanding
task. Finally, due to insufficient automation, knowl-
edge acquisition is the most expensive and time-con-
suming stage in developing knowledge-based sys-
tems. Most practical implementations have been
accomplished by interviewing experts and reviewing
written sources, and manually encoding captured
knowledge in a form suitable for computer process-
ing. On the other hand, automated knowledge syn-
thesis has been viewed as an emerging capability,
and the knowledge acquisition bottleneck treated as a
crucial challenge for its further development w7x.
In our view, the existing knowledge acquisition
techniques can assist in overcoming the limitations
of current knowledge-based systems. A field offering
valuable tools to knowledge engineers is machine
learning. Methods developed in this field are suitable
for inducing the laws that govern domains of practi-
cal interest. As such, they can be employed to auto-
mate the knowledge elicitation procedure. In this
way, more complex knowledge bases can be built in
shorter time with less engagement of experts. How-
ever, machine learning can be applied not only to
design knowledge-based systems, but also to identify
or restructure expert knowledge relevant to solving a
particular problem or improving an existent state. In
practice it is very common that knowledge possessed
by individual experts or dispersed in data collections
is overlooked until extracted and presented in an
explicit form.
These are our findings from the research of appli-
cability of machine learning in steel product manu-
facturing. The subject of our studies were machining
processes, such as electrical discharge machining
ŽEDM. and grinding, and the objective was to auto-
mate decision making related to the processes. The
machine learning approach used in the studies was
learning from examples.
The paper is further organized as follows. Section
2 presents machine learning from examples and the
learning system applied in the studies. Section 3
discusses the potential of machine learning in ma-
chining processes. In Section 4, a pilot learning
experiment is described, conducted to derive a classi-
fication procedure for dielectric fluids used in EDM.
Section 5 reports how the selection of grinding tools
at an industrial plant has been improved by learning
from technological data. Concluding remarks include
a summary of experiences gained in these studies,
plans for future work, and a general view of the role
of knowledge extraction techniques in connecting
activities at the shop floor and technology planning
levels.
2. Machine learning from examples
Machine learning is an information processing
technique concerned with deriving concepts from
data. A well-explored machine learning approach is
learning from examples, also referred to as inductive
machine learning. In this approach, examples of
problem situations are submitted to a learning system
that induces a general description of the underlying
concepts useful for problem solving. The resulting
concept descriptions can have the form of if–then
rules, decision trees, or ready-to-use computer proce-
dures.
Learning examples can often be very naturally
described with attributes and classes. Attributes rep-
resent features from the considered domain, such as
temperature, the content of a chemical element, the
shape of an object, etc., while class defines how an
example with given attribute values is treated. Such
descriptions may, for example, correspond to expert
decisions under given conditions, like setting process
parameters, given measurements and sensory data, or
diagnosing a fault from the observed symptoms.
Among attribute-based learning systems, there is
a family of algorithms called TDIDT, which stands
for Top Down Induction of Decision Trees w14x.
Given the training examples in the form of attribute
value vectors, these algorithms extract domain
knowledge in the form of a decision tree. A decision
tree is recursively constructed during the learning
process by splitting the training set into subsets until
all examples in the current subset belong to a single
class. The basic tree construction procedure of a
classical TDIDT learning algorithm, ID3 w15x, can be
summarized as follows:
Input: set of learning examples in attribute-based
notation.
 ˇ M. Junkarr Computers in Industry 43 (2000) 31–41
B. Filipic,
Output: decision tree corresponding to learning
examples.
Tree construction algorithm:
IF all learning examples belong to a single class
THEN create a leaf labeled with that class
ELSE
1. using an information-theoretic measure, find
the most informative attribute in the learning
set;
2. create the root of a tree labeled with that
attribute;
3. partition the learning set into subsets according
to the values of the selected attribute;
4. recursively apply the algorithm to each subset.
The key step of the algorithm is determination of
the most informative attribute on which to further
partition the learning subset at each recursive step.
This is carried in the following way. Let the learning
set consist of examples from Nc classes and let the
distribution of classes be C. Then, according to
information theory, the amount of information needed
to classify an instance from this set is
Nc
EŽ C . s y Ý pi log 2 pi ,
is1
where pi is the probability for the instance to belong
to the ith class. If an attribute A with Nv possible
values is chosen for partitioning the instances, the
amount of information needed for classification of an
instance from the set becomes
Nv Nc
pi j pi j
E Ž C N A. s y Ý pj Ý log 2 , Ž 2.
js1 is1 pj pj
where pj is the probability for the instance to have
the jth value of the attribute A, and pi j the probabil-
ity for the instance to both belong to the ith class
and have the jth value of the attribute A. The
informativity of the attribute is, therefore,
Inf Ž A . s E Ž C . y E Ž C < A .
and the most informative attribute is the one that
maximizes the value of Ž3.. The most straightforward
33
approach to estimate the probabilities needed in these
calculations is to statistically derive the correspond-
ing relative frequencies from the learning set.
In a decision tree obtained through the described
induction procedure, internal nodes denote tests on
attributes, links correspond to attribute values, and
terminal nodes Žalso called leaves. are labeled with
classes. A set of if–then rules equivalent to the
decision tree can be obtained by following the paths
from the root of the tree to each of the leaves. The
premise of a rule is the conjunction of attribute value
tests appearing in the visited internal nodes, and the
conclusion, the class appearing in the leaf. Either a
decision tree or rules allow for efficient classification
of new problem instances with unknown classes.
Moreover, representing domain concepts in a com-
pact and transparent way, such a result is suitable for
human inspection and often reveals a new insight
into the considered domain.
Attribute-based learning is the most practically
successful form of machine learning. Commercially
available learning programs exist, applicable in
knowledge acquisition for expert systems, and
achieving impressive results in real domains w1x.
Among these tools is Assistant w3x, a successor of
ID3, which extends the basic tree induction algo-
rithm in several ways. The extensions include learn-
Ž 1. ing from incompletely specified data, binarization of
attributes, and tree pruning, which serves as a noise
handling mechanism. These upgrades have proved
useful in areas where learning has to be performed
from incomplete and noisy data. Domains in which
Assistant has been applied with success include engi-
neering, business, and medicine w17x. Its re-imple-
mentation, called Magnus Assistant w12x, includes
mechanisms for better estimation of probabilities on
small example sets and generating output in the form
of directly applicable computer programs. These ex-
tensions allow for more accurate classification and
rapid application development.
3. Potential of learning in machining processes
Ž 3.
As a key stage of steel product manufacturing,
machining in industrial settings is nowadays based
on a number of new technologies and supported by
34 ˇ M. Junkarr Computers in Industry 43 (2000) 31–41
B. Filipic,
advanced machining devices and CADrCAM facili-
ties w10x. There is, however, not enough awareness of
the potential of the knowledge that accumulates
around such systems over time.
In interaction with the customers of our laboratory
test facilities and steel product manufacturers seek-
ing solutions to their problems, we are often faced
with situations where existing knowledge is ne-
glected or not effectively exploited. In most cases,
potential knowledge sources are human experts and
collections of technological data. Unfortunately, ex-
perts, such as experienced technologists and opera-
tors, are unable to articulate their know-how in an
explicit, formal manner. Moreover, human expertise
disappears from companies through fluctuation and
retirement. Automated knowledge acquisition from
examples of expert decisions would therefore allevi-
ate the problem of articulation and make the exper-
tise applicable even when experts are not present.
Similarly, technological databases may contain valu-
able knowledge on a machining process, which only
becomes transparent and operational when extracted
from data.
Using attribute-based machine learning, we han-
dle these situations as schematically shown in Fig. 1.
We focus on two activities related to a machining
process, data acquisition and decision making. Ma-
Fig. 1. From examples of decision situations to an automatically
generated decision procedure.
chining processes are rich sources of data. Depend-
ing on the type of the process and the need to be
satisfied, data can be acquired in different ways, e.g.
through measurements, calculations, or observations.
The collected data helps technologists and operators
in making decisions related to a process. Examples
of decisions that need to be made prior to or within
the process execution include setting parameter val-
ues, estimating process performance, carrying out
control actions and many others. In view of machine
learning, the available data are treated as attributes,
and decisions as classes. Recorded over time and
possibly stored in a database, such situations can be
regarded as learning examples. To automatically in-
duce decision procedures from examples of decisions
from the past, we use the Assistant learning system.
Our initial work on attribute-based learning re-
lated to machining processes was the prediction of
the grinding wheel performance from spectral char-
acteristics of the emitted vibration signals w8x. In a
similar manner, we assessed the workpiece surface
roughness generated in a plunge–grinding process
w5x. These laboratory experiments have been later
followed by two practically oriented studies. One has
been carried out in classification of dielectric fluids
used in EDM, and the other in the selection of tools
for an industrial grinding process.
4. Classification of dielectric fluids for EDM
4.1. Background
EDM is a machining technique through which the
surface of a metal workpiece is formed by discharges
occurring in the gap between the two electrodes, the
tool and the workpiece. The gap is flushed by the
third interface element, the dielectric fluid. The pro-
cess consists of numerous randomly ignited
monodischarges generating characteristic crater-tex-
tured surface. The quality of the obtained surface
depends on the stability of the gap conditions during
the process. The gap conditions are primarily influ-
enced by the type and state of the dielectric fluid.
The fluid properties affecting the discharge process
include viscosity, density, flash temperature, ion
number, and others. Incomplete deionization of the
 ˇ M. Junkarr Computers in Industry 43 (2000) 31–41
B. Filipic, 35

fluid, for example, results in the occurrence of sta-

tionary-located discharges, which are harmful to the
workpiece surface.
In practice, a dielectric fluid to be used for a
particular EDM operation is chosen by an operator.
Although this decision may seem trivial at first sight,
it actually involves selecting from a growing number
of products available in the market today. In addi-
tion, an EDM system can operate in different regimes,
such as roughing and finishing, which also require
different dielectric fluids. There are certain general
rules prescribing appropriate dielectric fluids for in- Fig. 2. A decision tree for classifying dielectric fluids used in
electrical discharge machining.
dividual regimes, but most of the operators’ deci-
sions are based on their experience and intuition.
To assist the consumers, fluid manufacturers spec- with known properties and recommended regimes
ify relevant physical and chemical properties of their w9x. In addition to the fluids tested in our laboratory,
products and recommend process regimes in which products of some other manufacturers were also
they should be used. These guidelines are obtained considered. A fragment from the learning data set,
through time-consuming laboratory experiments. At showing the considered fluid properties and recom-
the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of mended machining regimes, is shown in Table 1.
Ljubljana, we have been performing laboratory anal- In the learning experiment, the fluid properties
yses of dielectric fluids produced by a Slovenian were treated as attributes and machining regimes as
chemical company for years. For each product, a classes. The result of learning was the decision tree
number of physical and chemical properties were for classifying dielectric fluids, presented in Fig. 2.
determined through measurement and experimenta- The two internal nodes indicate tests on the values of
tion, and the fluid classified into one of the three flash temperature and viscosity, and the leaves sug-
categories: suitable for roughing, suitable for finish- gest appropriate machining regimes. Following the
ing, or universal, i.e. suitable for both machining paths from the root to the leaves, we obtain three
regimes. if–then rules:

4.2. The learning experiment Rule 1: IF flash temperatureF 85 THEN finish-

In the course of time, the manufacturer of dielec-
tric fluids and our operators became more interested
in the correlation between the fluid properties and
the machining process performance. To explore
whether the appropriate machining regime could be
predicted from the fluid properties, we applied the
Assistant learning program to a database of products
ing.
Rule 2: IF flash temperature) 85 AND viscosity
F 3.9 THEN universal.
Rule 3: IF flash temperature) 85 AND viscosity
) 3.9 THEN roughing.
The obtained rules partition the considered set of
dielectric fluids into three subsets corresponding to

Table 1
A fragment from the dielectric fluid database used in the machine learning analysis
Product name Viscosity Density Aromates Boiling Flash Solidif. Ion number Machining
wmm2 rsx wgrcm3 x w%x temp. w8Cx temp. w8Cx temp. w8Cx w–x regime
CCL 51 5.7 0.823 6.0 268 122 y15 1.07 roughing
Erozol BP180 1.7 0.749 0.1 195 70 y14 NrA finishing
PED 4549 2.0 0.797 4.0 196 68 y6 0.35 finishing
36 ˇ M. Junkarr Computers in Industry 43 (2000) 31–41
B. Filipic,
different machining regimes. It is interesting to see
that only two fluid characteristics, i.e. its flash tem-
perature and viscosity, are sufficient to classify the
fluids. While the impact of viscosity was known
before, our study showed that the flash temperature
of a fluid is also an important indicator of the EDM
regime in which the fluid should be used.
Further tests were carried out to check the classi-
fication accuracy of the obtained decision procedure.
The original data set was randomly split into two
subsets: 70% of examples were used for learning and
the remaining 30% for testing. A decision tree was
induced from the learning instances and applied to
the test instances. The predicted classes were com-
pared with known machining regimes to obtain the
proportion of correctly classified test instances. This
test was performed 10 times, each time using differ-
ent split of the data into learning and test subsets.
The average proportion of correctly classified test
examples was then assumed as an estimate of the
classification accuracy. The resulting value was
97.4%, which shows that, given the properties of a
dielectric fluids, it is possible to predetermine the
recommended machining regime with high accuracy.
Although elementary, this case study illustrates
how a practical decision procedure can be extracted
from examples of problem instances. We see that the
approach is beneficial for both the manufacturers and
consumers of dielectric fluids. For a manufacturer, it
has a potential of providing guidelines for the design
of new fluids and shortening the test procedure,
while a consumer can automate fluid selection by
learning from decisions made in the past.
5. Selection of grinding wheels in industrial knife
manufacturing
Another machine learning exploration of techno-
logical data has been conducted for a large steel
company. One of its departments produces knives
used in industry for cutting materials, such as metal,
wood, paper, and leather. Crucial for the quality of
knives is grinding which is the final phase of knife
manufacturing. To meet the desired quality stan-
dards, it is necessary to select an appropriate grind-
ing tool for every type of the workpiece material and
for each grinding operation. At the process planning
stage, only general instructions about tool selection
are given, while the main burden of determining a
tool for every individual task falls on the operators.
To bridge the information gap between the shop
floor level and the production planning department,
the state of the existing grinding technology was
recorded by interviewing the operators. Stored in a
technological database, the acquired data included
the workpiece and process characteristics and the
related grinding wheel specifications. This work was
initiated by Roethel and Junkar w16x. The objective of
further cooperation with the company has been to
induce general rules for tool selection from the tech-
nological database. In analyzing the existing state
and suggesting steps towards its improvement, ma-
chine learning played an essential role w6x.
5.1. The tool selection task
Grinding of an industrial knife involves six opera-
tions related to the knife surfaces Žsee Fig. 3.. The
cutting surface is first pre-ground and then ground
with a different grinding wheel. The two grinding
operations are called face shaping and face dimen-
sioning, respectively. Grinding of upper and lower
surfaces, and length and width sides requires a single
grinding operation for each surface. Each of these
operations also has to be carried out with a specific
grinding wheel.
The workpiece material, steel, can be of different
chemical structure. Its characteristics are determined
by the content of six elements: carbon ŽC., chromium
ŽCr., molybdenum ŽMo., silicon ŽSi., vanadium ŽV.,
Fig. 3. Knife surfaces to be machined by grinding.
 ˇ M. Junkarr Computers in Industry 43 (2000) 31–41
B. Filipic,
and tungsten ŽW.. Important for the material proper-
ties is also the heat treatment of a workpiece. Steel
of three different treatments is used at the depart-
ment of industrial knives, annealed and quenched at
two different temperatures.
Grinding wheels are characterized by three fea-
tures: hardness, grain size, and porosity, which is
also referred to as structure. To denote values of
these characteristics, standardized scales are used by
wheel manufacturers. For practical purposes, wheel
characteristics are often treated qualitatively. For
example, wheels of hardness E, F and G are consid-
ered soft, grain size below 16 denotes very rough
wheels, wheels with structure designation higher than
10 are highly porous, etc.
Given the workpiece chemical structure, its heat
treatment and the grinding operation to be per-
formed, the task is to determine the appropriate
grinding wheel in terms of its hardness, grain size,
and porosity.
5.2. Learning tool selection rules
A machine learning analysis of tool selection
prescriptions acquired from operators and stored in a
technological database was done with the Assistant
learning program. The learning set consisted of 190
regularly used prescriptions, covering the entire pro-
gram of industrial knives manufactured at the depart-
ment. Learning instances were described by eight
attributes Žthe content of six chemical elements, heat
treatment of the workpiece, and the grinding opera-
tion. and the grinding wheel specification, consisting
of wheel hardness, grain size and porosity. Examples
of prescriptions for wheel selection are shown in
Table 2. They are intended for grinding lower sur-
face and length side of a knife made of steel with
given chemical structure. It can be seen, for exam-
ple, that for the annealed workpiece the prescribed
hardness of the grinding wheel is G, grain size 24
and porosity 10. In the same manner, the wheels are
prescribed for quenched steel.
In machine learning analysis of prescriptions, two
different learning strategies were applied. They dif-
fered in treating the wheel specifications. The first
strategy was learning to determine each of the three
37
Table 2
Example prescriptions for grinding wheel selection Žmachine:
BVP-40; steel composition: 0.9% C, 4% Cr, 5% Mo, 1.9% V,
6.5% W; operations: grinding lower surface and length side of an
industrial knife.
Heat treatment Grinding wheel specification
Hardness Grain size Porosity
Annealing G 24 10
Quenching 48–54 HRc K 46 5
Quenching 55–63 HRc H 46 8
wheel characteristics separately. In other words,
learning was performed three times, every time con-
sidering a different wheel characteristic as class. In
the learning procedure, qualitative values of charac-
teristics were treated. Class values for hardness rep-
resented in the learning set were medium, soft and
very soft, grain size was rough or medium, and
structure medium, open or highly porous. This strat-
egy resulted in three decision trees, one for each
characteristic of a grinding wheel.
The other strategy was learning complete wheel
specifications. Here, a single learning task was con-
sidered where class values were elements of the
Cartesian product of hardness, grain size and poros-
ity classes used in the first strategy. Values of the
compound wheel specification class were, for in-
stance, soft–medium grain size–open structure, very
soft–rough grain size–highly porous, etc. The result
of learning was a single decision tree covering com-
plete specifications of grinding wheels.
5.3. Results
Results of the machine learning experiments for
the entire set of grinding machines at the industrial
knife manufacturing department are summarized in
Table 3. The classification accuracy was obtained
empirically, using the test procedure presented in
Section 4.2. Surprisingly, the accuracy of the ob-
tained decision trees was quite low. It was only
slightly higher than the relative frequency of the
majority class instances in the learning set, which is
the lower bound for the classification accuracy of
any reasonable classifier. To explain this outcome,
the tool selection prescriptions used for learning and
38 ˇ M. Junkarr Computers in Industry 43 (2000) 31–41
B. Filipic,

Table 3
Learning grinding wheel specifications for the entire group of machines
Specification element Classes Majority Classification
class w%x accuracy w%x
Hardness 3 44.2 58.5
Grain size 2 52.6 65.2
Structure 3 51.0 57.7
Complete specification 13 27.4 36.3

the resulting misclassifications were examined in
detail. It turned out that in a number of cases a
variety of different grinding wheels were used for
the same operation, workpiece chemical structure
and heat treatment. Disagreements were up to two
classes per wheel characteristic. This was due to
different preferences of operator teams on individual
machines. As a matter of a fact, these discrepancies
led to inconsistent quality of the products and re-
quired an excessive stock of grinding wheels. The
machine learning analysis clearly pointed out the
reason for these drawbacks and showed the need to
adjust the prescriptions.
As the operators’ decisions applied on a single
machine were expected to be more consistent, further
exploration was done in this direction. Tool selection
prescriptions were divided into subsets with respect
to grinding machines on which they were in use.
Machine learning was then applied separately to the
subsets to generate decision trees for tool selection
on individual machines. Again, the classification ac-
curacy of the resulting decision trees was determined
empirically. Table 4 shows the results of learning
complete wheel specifications for three grinding ma-
chines on which the majority of the prescriptions
Žabout 30 per machine. are applied. The classifica-
tion accuracy tests confirmed compatibility between
the resulting decision trees and the tool selection
prescriptions. Moreover, according to the involved
operators, the induced decision trees were in accor-
dance with their way of selecting the tools. It also is
worth to mention that the operators found decision
trees a compact and easy-to-understand representa-
tion of the decision making procedure.
Fig. 4 shows the decision tree obtained for tool
selection on the BVP40 machine where five different
types of wheels are used. Giving an explicit rule for
each of the wheel classes, it effectively substitutes
the underlying 28 prescriptions for tool selection. It
also reveals an important simplification: an appropri-
ate wheel for grinding operations to be performed on
this machine can be determined by only considering
the content of carbon in the workpiece and its heat
treatment.
Partial results obtained for individual machines
represent a base for unifying the tool selection pre-
scriptions for the entire department. Through com-
pact description of the existent state, differences can

Table 4
Learning grinding wheel specifications for individual machines
Grinding machine Classes Majority Classification
class w%x accuracy w%x
BVP-40 5 32.2 95.3
BVP-60a 3 66.7 96.0
SIELEMANN-a 2 66.7 100.0
 ˇ M. Junkarr Computers in Industry 43 (2000) 31–41
B. Filipic,
Fig. 4. A decision tree for grinding wheel determination on machine BVP40.
be more easily analyzed and uniform solutions found
where possible. The goal of the ongoing work is to
form a consistent knowledge base of an expert sys-
tem for tool selection in manufacturing industrial
knives. The system is meant to support regular pro-
duction as well as experimentation in developing
new products. These enhancements are undertaken as
a step towards higher flexibility in responding to
customer demands.
6. Conclusions
In our experience, knowledge extraction from ex-
amples in real-world domains is an iterative process.
Cooperation of both domain experts and knowledge
engineers in providing and refining the training set
and evaluating the results in consecutive iterations is
vital for its success. However, when properly used,
machine learning is a powerful tool in building
knowledge bases and automating decision making. A
number of recent reports confirm that this informa-
tion processing technique is gaining interest in a
wide range of manufacturing sectors Žsee, for exam-
39
ple, a review in Ref. w13x.. In machining, grinding
appears to be particularly well suited for employ-
ment of intelligent systems, including machine learn-
ing techniques. Their applications range from param-
eter setting and tool selection to adaptive systems
integrated with machine controllers w2x. Applications
in machining domains presented in this paper partic-
ularly demonstrate how applicable rules can be effec-
tively extracted from technological data.
Encouraged by the described pilot experiment in
classifying dielectric fluids for EDM, we now con-
tinue with facilitating the interactions within the
customer–supplier chain. The issue that has recently
brought the two sides closer to each other is ecology.
Not only the impact of dielectric fluids on the quality
and effectiveness of machining, but also their envi-
ronmental effects are becoming more and more im-
portant. Dielectric fluid manufacturers are forced to
also consider noxiousness and organoleptic proper-
ties of the products, their dissolution characteristics,
etc. In a new investigation, these effects are planned
to be monitored at several customers, while the fluid
manufacturers will provide additional physical and
chemical characteristics for their products. Using the
inductive machine learning approach to correlating
40 ˇ M. Junkarr Computers in Industry 43 (2000) 31–41
B. Filipic,
data from both sides, we expect to contribute to their
common goal: to produce, at minimal costs, dielec-
tric fluids that would satisfy both performance re-
quirements and ecological standards.
In selecting tools for grinding industrial knives,
the machine learning analysis has proved beneficial
in detecting inconsistencies and suggesting correc-
tions of existing prescriptions. When implemented,
the expert system for tool selection with consistent
rules for the entire industrial knives department will
allow for significant reduction of production costs in
the factory. In particular, an analysis showed that
elimination of inconsistent tool selection prescrip-
tions could decrease costs of man and machine time
and tool wear by up to 30%. Since product orders
from various customers do not vary much in dimen-
sions and geometry, the new system will contribute
to savings in both the operating time and the invest-
ments into wheel stock. Finally, the new approach
will offer general instructions for tool selection in
grinding new materials with chemical structure and
heat treatment similar to that of already encountered
examples. Exploiting the similarities, a large part of
time-consuming experiments now performed on trial
and error basis will then be unnecessary, and labora-
tory experimentation on new materials will be more
systematic and cheaper. At the same time, equipped
with better knowledge about the technology, the
designers of new products are expected to be more
efficient in their work.
In conclusion, since the application of appropriate
technology for a specific manufacturing task remains
the basic challenge for both technologists and de-
signers, decision support in finding appropriate tech-
nological solutions is of great importance. Novel
concepts, such as concurrent engineering, require
comprehensible and reliable information in order to
effectively implement design for manufacturing.
Much of the needed information can be extracted
from data and experience gained on production lines
in the shop floor. In our view, machine learning
methods are an appropriate tool for incorporating
expert knowledge into decision making procedures
for machining. They help in clarifying complex in-
terrelations among parameters involved in machining
process and enhance process performance prediction
and control. They also support transfer of relevant
information to the technology planning level, and
enable designers to make proper decisions at early
planning stages.
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B. Filipic, 41

w17x T. Urbancic, Mihael Junkar obtained his PhD de-

ˇ ˇ I. Kononenko, V. Krizman,
ˇ Review of applica-
gree from the Faculty of Mechanical
tions by Ljubljana Artificial Intelligence Laboratories. Tech-
Engineering, University of Ljubljana,
nical report IJS DP-6218, Jozefˇ Stefan Institute, Ljubljana,
Slovenia. There, he is now an associated
1991.
professor at the Department of Manufac-
Bogdan Filipicˇ received his PhD in turing Technologies, and the head of the
Computer Science from the University Laboratory for Alternative Technologies
of Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 1993. He is and Engineering Metrology. He is also a
currently a research associate at the De- visiting professor at the University
partment of Intelligent Systems of the Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France. His
ˇ Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, and an
Jozef research areas are machining process
assistant professor of Computer and In- identification, modeling and control,
formation Science at the University of management of innovative technologies and engineering metrol-
Ljubljana. His research interests include ogy. He has published over 50 research papers and led several
evolutionary computation, machine research projects for industry.
learning and knowledge-based systems.
He is active in promoting these tech-
niques in practical problem solving in engineering, manufacturing,
and industrial process optimization. He has published in several
scientific journals, including Computers in Industry, Engineering
Applications of Artificial Intelligence, IEEE Transactions on Sys-
tems, Man and Cybernetics, and ReÕiew of Scientific Instruments.
He is a member of IEEE Computer Society and Slovenian Artifi-
cial Intelligence Society.