The Advanced Research Institute (A.R. 1.) on "the efficiency of
Manufacturing Systems" was held under the auspices of the NATO Special
Programm Panel on Systems Science as a part of the NATO Science
Committee's continuous effort to promote the advancement of science
through international co-operation. Advanced Research Institutes are
organised for the purpose of bringing together experts in a particular
field of interest to identify and make known the present state of
knowledge in that area and, through informed debate, to make
recommendations for directions for future research that would benefit
the community at large. To this end two kinds of contribution were
obtained by invitation. There were those papers which were about the
current state of work in the area of manufacturing systems and its
organisation; in addition three theme papers were presented to provide a
stimulus to the discussion in terms of ways of thinking, both about the
area and about the kind of research needed.