Intelligent Control of Flexible Manufacturing Systems

Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) has existed, in concept, for several years. While it is still generally believed that CIM can have a major positive impact on productivity, it is far from commonplace in today’s factories. The high costs of software development, maintenance, and integration are among the most prominent reasons for our slow evolution to CIM. More specifically, many computer packages have been developed to address specific manufacturing tasks like scheduling or process planning. Unfortunately, these software systems fail to provide the “hooks” needed for total Manufacturing System integration. This happens because these programs are: 1) developed by different vendors, on different hardware platforms, 2) not meant to be integrated with programs from other vendors, and 3) not part of a overall CIM architecture.