Computer Integrated Manufacturing System

       I.    Production System Facilities

a.     Low Quantity Production

b.     Medium Quantity Production

c.      High Production

    II.    Manufacturing Support Systems

 III.    Automation in Production Systems

a.     Automated Manufacturing Systems

b.     Computerized Manufacturing Support Systems

c.      Reasons for Automating

IV.    Manual Labor in Production Systems

a.     Manual Labor in Factory Operations

b.     Labor in the Manufacturing Support Systems

   V.    Automation Principles and Strategies

a.     USA Principle

b.     Ten Strategies of Automation and Production Systems

c.      Automation Migration Strategy

VI.    Organization of the Book

This session is about production systems that are used to manufacture products and the parts assembled into those products.The production system is the collection of people, equipment, and procedures, organized to accomplish the manufacturing operations of a company (or other organization). Production systems can be divided into two categories or levels as indicated in Figure 1.1:

1. Facilities.The facilities of the production system consist of the factory, the equipment in the factory, and the way the equipment is organized.

2. Manufacturing support systems. This is the set of procedures used by the company to manage production and to solve the technical and logistics problems encountered in ordering materials, moving work through the factory, and ensuring that products meet quality standards. Product design and certain business functions are included among the manufacturing support systems.

In modern manufacturing operations, portions of the production system are automated and/or computerized. However, production systems include people. People make these systems work. In general, direct labor people (blue collar workers) are responsible for operating the facilities, and professional staff people (white collar workers) are responsible for the manufacturing support systems.

In this introductory chapter, we consider these two aspects of production systems and how they are sometimes automated and/or computerized in modern industrial practice. In Chapter 2, we examine the manufacturing operations that the production systems are intended to accomplish.