Computer Integrated Manufacturing: Current Status and Challenges (NATO ASI Subseries F:, 49)

The Current state of expectations is that Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) will ulti­ mately determine the industrial growth of world nations within the next few decades. Computer Aided Design (CAD) , Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) , Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) , Robotics together with Knowledge and Information Based Systems (KIBS) and Com­ munication Networks are expected to develop to a mature state to respond effectively to the managerial requirements of the factories of the future that are becoming highly integrated and complex. CIM represents a new production approach which will allow the factories to deliver a high variety of products at a low cost and with short production cycles. The new technologies for CIM are needed to develop manufacturing environments that are smarter, faster, close-cou­ pled, integrated, optimized, and flexible. Sophistication and a high degree of specialization in materials science, artificial intelligence, communications technology and knowledge-information science techniques are needed among others for the development of realizable and workable CIM systems that are capable of adjusting to volatile markets. CIM factories are to allow the production of a wide variety of similar products in small batches through standard but multi­ mission oriented designs that accommodate flexibility with specialized software.