The General Motors Variation-Reduction Adviser: Evolution of a CBR System

The GM Variation-Reduction Adviser (VRA) was originally conceived and prototyped as a CBR system. Feedback from the users led to a variety of changes in the system. It is emerging now as an application destined for all GM assembly plants. This is a fine “success story.” However, the VRA has lost so much of its CBR character that it might be best characterized as a “CBR inspired” system rather than a CBR system. In this paper, we describe the original concept and the user feedback that guided its evolution into its current form. Every “real application” has interesting stories about “what worked” and “what didn’t.” Here, we share some of these stories about our project.