Computer Integrated Manufacturing

Part 1 Overview and theses: background - the barrier and the breakthrough; the complexity/variety barrier; globalization and restructuring of industry; CIM and the systems view of manufacturing; general conclusions. Part 2 Manufacturing technology and sources of productivity: sources of past gains in manufacturing protectivity; manufacturing operations for non-engineers; human factors - man-machine interface; manufacturing productivity trends. Part 3 Simple economics of manufacturing: economies of scale and learning; a simplified cost model; the productivity dilemma; flexibility and economics of scope. Part 4 Flexible manufacturing technology: programmability; numerical controls before computerization; computers and micro-electronics; computer numerical control of machine tools; robots; flexible (batch) manufacturing - FMC and FMS; adoption strategies for FMS; sensors and adaptive control; artificial intelligence. Part 5 Adoption/diffusion of CIM technologies: the diffusion process; progress versus diffusion; benefits measurement; static versus dynamic approaches to benefits measurement; numeric control (NC and CNC); robots; flexible manufacturing cells and systems; CAD. Part 6 Organization and management: SQC and TQC; group technology (GT); materials resource planning (MRP); just-in-time (JIT) and CIM; meta systems and protocols; new approaches to cost accounting; flexible management. Part 7 Economic impacts of CIM: labour and capital; scale dynamics; labour productivity and macro-economic growth; product mix - the implications of diversity; productivity slowdown. Part 8 Social impacts of CIM: quality of work life; network organization; employment and unemployment; the social structure and the role of the unions; education; international trade and economic development. Part 9 Epilogue: post-industrialism reconsidered.

...an easy read...very useful as additional background for engineering students since it places manufacturing processes in the larger socio-economic frame without being too jargon-laden...highly relevant to economic and tother social scientists, teachers, as well as students. - International Journal of Production Research