Abstract
The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of different menu structures on the effectiveness of supervisory control in a flexible manufacturing system. The variables evaluated included four hierarchical levels, two sizes of database, two work methods, and four distances between the items in the data structure. The results indicated that both performance time and errors increased as the hierarchical levels of the data structure increased. This implies that the parallel mode of data presentation is more effective than the hierarchical one. Furthermore, information that is scattered around the database should be acquired and considered simultaneously, as searching back and forth through the menu hierarchy decreases the speed and accuracy of performance.
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