Modem manufacturing systems involve many processes and operations that
can be monitored and controlled at several levels of intelligence. At
the highest level there is a computer that supervises the various
manufacturing functions, whereas at the lowest level there are stand
alone computer controlled systems of manufacturing processes and robotic
cells. Until recenty computer-aided manufacturing systems constituted
isolated "islands" of automation, each oriented to a particular
application, but present day systems offer integrated approaches to
manufacturing and enterprise operations. These modem systems, known as
computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) systems, can easily meet the
current performance and manufacturing competitiveness requirements under
strong environmental changes. CIM systems are much of a challenge, and
imply a systemic approach to the design and operation of a manufacturing
enterprise. Actualy, a CIM system must take into account in a unified
way the following three views: the user view, the technology view, and
the enterprise view. This means that CIM includes both the engineering
and enterprise planning and control activities, as well as the
information flow activities across all the stages of the system.