Pattern classification driven enhancements for human-in-the-loop decision support systems
Data mining has been a key technology in the warranty sector for mass manufacturers to understand and improve product quality, reliability and durability. Cost savings is an important aspect of business which calls for processes that are error proof. Pattern classification methods applied to the diagnostic data could help build error proof processes by improving the diagnostic technology. In this paper we present a case study from the automotive warranty and service domain involving a human-in-the-loop decision support system (HIL-DSS). The automotive manufacturers offer warranties on products, made of parts from different suppliers, and rely on a dealer network to assess warranty claims. The dealers use diagnostic equipment manufactured by third parties and also draw on their own expertise. In addition, a subject matter expert (SME) assesses these collective decisions to distinguish between inaccurate diagnoses by the dealers or an inadequate decision algorithm in the diagnostic equipment. Altogether this makes a comprehensive HIL-DSS. The proposed methodology continuously learns from collective decision making systems, enhances the diagnostic equipment, adds to the knowledge of dealers and minimizes the SME involvement in the review process of the overall system. Improving the diagnostic equipment helps in better warranty servicing, whereas improvements in the human expert knowledge help prevent field error and avoid customer dissatisfaction due to improper fault diagnosis.
pattern classification decision support systems human expert decision trees support vector machines confusion matrix