The aim of this research programme was to develop a series of methods and solutions to support the decision-making process in foundry and materials engineering. The specific problems discussed included the selection of methods for data processing and knowledge representation formalisms, backed up by the creation of decision algorithms based on contemporary achievements of artificial intelligence, tailored to the needs of foundry industry and metallurgy. The manufacturing process of metal items is associated with many aspects, which affect the quality of end product. For process engineers responsible for the supervising and planning of production, an important feature is, among others, the diversified nature of numerous aspects of the knowledge acquisition and integration from distributed sources of information which, when made available in an appropriate manner, can support the improvement of manufacturing process.