Computer Integrated Manufacturing: Tomorrow’s Technology Today

Abstract

Computer technology is revolutionizing manufacturing, and the bottom line is improved productivity. Since manufacturing is responsible for “close to two thirds of Amerìca’s real wealth” as measured by our gross national product, it follows that “any tool which increases manufacturing productivity will have a profound effect upon our GNP” and thus upon all of our lives. Two such high-tech tools, computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), are already mainstays in many U.S. industries today. But the keynote of the 1980s is the development of a coordinated, all inclusive system called computer integrated manufacturing (CIM), which has been described as “taking the slash out of CAD/CAM.” Management must view computer technology as both “a challenge and an opportunity” to achieve “greater creativity in the design and development of innovative and competitive products.”