ABSTRACT
The changes in industry are complex and multidimensional. Automation alters all aspects of the industrial process—resource acquisition, planning, design, manufacturing, inventory control, monitoring, and coordination of all spheres of production and organization. Plans for computer-integrated manufacturing exist, but only a few examples of full factory automation are operational. Automation in the office has proceeded with little resistance from the office staff, but automation in the factory is another matter. Engineering design and manufacturing present different automation problems. In the sphere of design automation, computer-aided design software provides drawing and graphic tools on engineering workstations. The computer-integrated manufacturing system brings together the separate factory systems and islands of automation by controlling and monitoring the flow of materials and information in the factory subsystems. Several computer-controlled, completely robotic assembly factories have been built by designing the plant and assembly tasks for simple robot mechanisms and robot conveyor systems.
