On Systems Engineering for Computer Integrated Manufacturing

Factory Automation (FA) serves to promote the diversity and flexibility of production through the use of hardware and software, such as NC, MC, industrial robot, automatic warehouse, AGV, CAD-CAM, and production control information system. The recent rend of FA is toward systematic, rather than isolated, equipment and toward more software than hardware.This is a report on the actual condition of FA. Data from two years of operation in Japanese business are up for analysis. Technical and labor problems are also taken up for discussion, along with solutions for them. Observations are then made on the future development of FA in Japan and other countries. In view of the growing weight of software in FA, some comment is made on ideas and trends of rolesharing among software, hardware and man.Next, the systems engineering for the computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) descrived above is shown. It will be important for such a large scale system as CIM.