Today’s highly competitive, fast pace business environment makes it an absolute requirement on behalf of the managers to conti

Today’s highly competitive, fast pace business environment makes it an absolute requirement on managers to continuously make the right decisions in the shortest possible time. There is no room for error in making managerial decisions in this global environment marked by mergers, acquisitions, and ever-increasing economic instability. Success (or merely survivability) depends on the managers making decisions to quickly align organizational resources towards meeting and exceeding ever changing needs and wants of the customer. In order to succeed in such unforgiving environment, managers need “intelligent” information systems capable of supporting them throughout the decision-making lifecycle by using a wide variety of models along with data and information resources coming from all kinds of sources. This paper summarizes the results of a research effort aimed to fill this need for manufacturing systems managers. * Corresponding author