A Decision Support System (DSS) is a knowledge-based computer application program/knowledge management designed to analyze data to become information that supports organizations and individuals in decision/policy making.
Getting to know Decision Support Systems (DSS)
In the business world, it is natural for every profit organization to want its business to be successful and grow, but efforts to achieve this no longer rely solely on conventional methods (production-distribution-sales), because there must be a new strategy so that the business it runs can compete with its business rivals. That is why many organizations and individuals are very interested in utilizing technology to help solve the problems they face, and one of them is Decision Support System software technology.
1. Illustration of the use of SPK
For example, in a college, 1 scholarship is provided for all students from semester 1 to semester 5. The requirements set to be able to get this scholarship are:
- The student comes from a poor family with a salary earned by the family (father's salary + mother's salary) less than the UMR value set by the governor of the Special Region of Yogyakarta, which is IDR 1,200,000.
- The student has a GPA > 3
Suppose there are 4 people registered with the following conditions:
| Mahasiswa ke- | UMR orang tua | IPK |
|---------------|---------------|-----|
| 1 | 1.000.000 | 3.5 |
| 2 | 980.000 | 3.6 |
| 3 | 1.200.000 | 3.2 |
| 4 | 1.500.000 | 3.9 |Without using DSS, which of the four children would be eligible for the scholarship? You can probably still do it the conventional way for the example above, but it will be very troublesome if the data provided is very complex and involves a lot of data.
Mintzberg's (1980) classic study of managers and several studies say that managers have 10 main roles, namely:
| PERAN | DESKRIPSI |
|--------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Interpersonal | |
| Figurehead | Peranan untuk mewakili organisasi yang dipimpinnya dalam setiap kesempatan dan persoalan yang timbul secara formal. Misalnya, melaksanakan tugas-tugas sosial dan hukum, bertindak sebagai pemimpin simbolis dengan menyapa pengunjung, menandatangani dokumen hukum, menghadiri upacara pemotongan pita, tuan rumah resepsi, dll. |
| Leader | Peranan untuk menjadikan unit organisasinya berfungsi sebagai suatu kesatuan dalam mencapai tujuan dimana manajer perlu mengarahkan, memotivasi dan menciptakan kondisi yang memungkinkan untuk bekerja bagi pengikutnya. |
| Liaison (Penghubung atau Duta Perwakilan) | Peranan yang mengharuskan menajer melakukan interaksi dengan teman sejawat, staf, dan orang-orang lain yang berada di luar organisasinya untuk mendapatkan informasi. |
| Informasional | |
| Monitor | Peranan yang mengharuskan seorang manajer untuk menjadi pencari, penerima dan pengumpul informasi agar mampu mengembangkan, dalam pengertian menjadikan organisasi yang dipimpinnya lebih baik. Misalnya, mencari dan memperoleh pekerjaan yang berhubungan dengan informasi, membaca berita perdagangan, majalah, laporan, menghadiri seminar dan pelatihan, serta menjaga kontak relasi. |
| Disseminator role (Peran Penyebar) | Peranan yang menempatkan manajer sebagai penyebar informasi ke seluruh jajaran organisasi yang menjadi tanggung jawabnya. Ini dimungkinkan karena ia memiliki akses pada semua informasi melalui peran monitornya. Misalnya, berkomunikasi / menyebarkan informasi kepada orang lain dalam organisasi, mengirim memo dan laporan; menginformasikan staf dan bawahan terkait kebijakan / keputusan yang sudah diambil. |
| Spokesman role (peran juru bicara) | Peranan manajer untuk mewakili organisasi dalam hal menyampaikan informasi ke luar organisasinya. Misalnya, berkomunikasi / mengirimkan informasi ke masyarakat luar, menyampaikan memo, laporan dan bahan informasi, berpartisipasi dalam konferensi / pertemuan dan laporan kemajuan, dll. |
| Decisional | |
| Enterpreneur role (Peran Wirausaha) | Peranan sebagai pemrakarsa dan perancang bagi sejumlah perubahan yang terkendali dalam organisasinya. Misalnya, mendorong para rekan manajer untuk membuat proyek-proyek perbaikan dan bekerja untuk mendelegasikan, memberdayakan dan mengawasi tim dalam proses pembangunan. |
| Disturbance-handler role (Peran Penghalau Gangguan) | Peranan yang membawa manajer untuk bertanggung jawab ketika organisasinya mengalami krisis yang seringkali tidak direncanakan sebelumnya. |
| Resource allocator of role (peran pembagi sumber-daya) | Peranan manajer sebagai penentu dalam mengalokasikan sebagian sumber daya, seperti keuangan / dana untuk kegiatan tertentu dalam organisasi. |
| Negotiator role (Peran Perunding) | Peran yang menempatkan manajer sebagai perunding (negotiator) baik dengan pihak-pihak dalam lingkungan organisasi maupun pihak luar, guna memecahkan masalah-masalah yang dihadapi organisasi. |Judging from the role, it can be concluded that one of the activities carried out by managers is making decisions related to the information received. The environment in which managers operate is changing rapidly. Business, the environment and problems are getting more complex every day. As a result, decision making is getting more complicated.
2. Types of Decisions According to Herbert A. Simon [1]:
- Programmed Decisions are repetitive and routine in nature, such that a definite procedure has been established to handle them.
- Non-Programmed Decisions are new, unstructured and rarely consequential. There is no definite method to handle this problem.
3. Stages of Decision Making According to Simon [1]:
- Intelligence Activities, observing the environment looking for conditions that need to be improved.
- Activities Designing, finding, developing and analyzing various possible alternative actions.
- Selecting Activity, choosing a particular set of actions from several available ones.
Scheme creates solutions
Problems that arise in managerial activities can be divided into 3, namely:
a. Structured problems
It is a problem that has a problem structure in the first 3 stages, namely intelligence, design and choice. Structured problems are routine problems, which often occur repeatedly.
In structured problems, there are usually standard procedures for solving these structured problems. For example, granting student leave, taking TA/thesis, closing accounts and others.
b. Semi-structured problems
It is a problem that is between unstructured and structured, meaning that the problem faced may be a routine problem but the standard procedures that can be used cannot solve the existing problem.
Decision making for semi-structured problems means that the consideration of the decision maker/manager also plays a role so that the decisions taken are different from existing procedures. Semi-structured problems can be solved with the help of a decision support system. For example: granting credit, selecting employees, providing aid funds, selecting projects.
c. Unstructured Problems
It is a problem that has absolutely no structure.
In unstructured problems, the solution to solve the problem is unclear because there are no rules and patterns that can be used as guidelines in taking a solution. Unstructured problems are usually solved with the help of artificial intelligence such as expert systems, data mining and others. Case examples; stock price forecasting, disease determination, shortest route search.
4. Understanding SPK
Decision Support System (DSS) is a system that is able to provide problem-solving capabilities and communication capabilities for problems with semi-structured and unstructured conditions.
This system is used to assist decision making in semi-structured and unstructured situations, where no one knows for sure how decisions should be made (Turban, 2001).
Scott Morton (1970s) in the book turban: "an interactive computer-based system that helps decision makers use data and models to solve unstructured problems".
5. Purpose of SPK
- Helps managers make decisions to solve semi-structured problems.
- Support the manager's judgment rather than trying to replace it.
- Increasing the effectiveness of managers' decision making rather than its efficiency.
6. SPK components
SPK Components
The SPK must include 4 main components, namely:
- Data Management Subsystem (Database Management System). Includes a database that contains data relevant to the situation and is managed by software called a database management system (DBMS).
- Model Management Subsystem. A software package that includes financial, statistical, management science, or other quantitative models.
- Knowledge-based management subsystem. Contains data items that are processed to produce understanding, experience, collections of lessons and expertise.
- User Interface Subsystem. It is a facility that is able to integrate the installed system with the user interactively. Through this dialogue system the system is articulated so that it can communicate with the designed system or the user can communicate with the decision support system and command the decision support system through this system.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Expert Systems
Excess
- Enables laypeople to do the work of experts.
- Can perform repeated processes automatically.
- Store expert knowledge and expertise.
- Able to capture and preserve the expertise of experts (especially those with rare expertise).
- Able to operate in hazardous environments.
- Has the ability to work with incomplete and uncertain information. 1. The user can respond with a 'don't know' or 'not sure' answer to one or more questions during the consultation and the expert system will still provide an answer.
- It does not require any costs when not in use, whereas human experts require daily costs.
- Can be duplicated (multiplied) as needed with minimal time and cost.
- Can solve problems faster than human capabilities with records using the same data.
- Save time in decision making.
- Improve quality and productivity by providing consistent advice and reducing errors.
- Increasing the capabilities of other computerized systems. Integration of expert systems with other computers makes them more effective, and can cover more applications.
- Able to provide training. Novice users working with expert systems will become more experienced. The explanatory facility can function as a teacher.
Lack
- The costs required to build, maintain and maintain them are very expensive.
- Difficult to develop, this is closely related to the availability of experts in the field and expertise is very difficult to extract from humans because it is very difficult for an expert to explain their steps in dealing with a problem.
- Expert systems are not 100% correct because someone involved in making an expert system is not always right. Therefore, it needs to be retested carefully before being used.
- The approach by each expert to a situation or problem can be different, even though they are both correct.
- Knowledge transfer can be subjective and biased.
- Lack of user trust can hinder the use of expert systems.
Reference:
- http://staff.uny.ac.id/sites/default/files/penelitian/Saliman,%20Drs.%20M.Pd./Mengenal%20DSS.pdf
- http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/decision-support-system
- Introduction to SPK Module, compiled by Andri Syafrianto, S.Kom., M.Cs