Towards Balanced Automation The concept. Manufacturing industries worldwide are facing tough challenges as a consequence of the globalization of economy and the openness of the markets. Progress of the economic blocks such as the European Union, NAFTA, and MERCOSUR, and the global agreements such as GATT, in addition to their obvious economic and social consequences, provoke strong paradigm shifts in the way that the manufacturing systems are conceived and operate. To increase profitability and reduce the manufacturing costs, there is a recent tendency towards establishing partnership links among the involved industries, usually between big industries and the networks of components' suppliers. To benefit from the advances in technology, similar agreements are being established between industries and universities and research institutes. Such an open tete-cooperation network may be identified as an extended enterprise or a virtual enterprise. In fact, the manufacturing process is no more carried out by a single enterprise, rather each enterprise is just a node that adds some value (a step in the manufacturing chain) to the cooperation network of enterprises. The new trends create new scenarios and technological challenges, especially to the Small and Medium size Enterprises (SMEs) that clearly comprise the overwhelming majority of manufacturing enterprises worldwide. Under the classical scenarios, these SMEs would have had big difficulties to access or benefit from the state of the art technology, due to their limited human, financial, and material resources.

Today's manufacturing environment is characterised by significant change in the way it is able to respond to its business objectives. Companies now face new challenges to meet customer demands including greater flexibility, a wider range of products, higher quality, improved lead time, whilst maintaining _c.ompetitive prices. The changes manifest in each company will differ but, the trend is towards providing a leaner, more responsive organisation. This is reflected in the need for Information Technology (IT) systems to be more integrated across an enterprise and for the systems to be provided on a distributed basis. At the same time it is imperative that the costs associated with these IT systems and the range of skills required by an enterprise to develop and support such systems should be minimal. One way of achieving this objective is to adopt the use of standards. During recent years there has been a lot of activity to standardise the way that manufacturing devices communicate with each other. Considerable progress has been made, thanks not least to the success of the international effort of stand ardisation bodies like ISO, IEEE and IEC, and projects applying standardised protocols like Manufacturing Automation Protocol (MAP), in the USA, Commun ications Network for Manufacturing Applications (CNMA) in Europe and not forgetting Mini-MAP and Fieldbus technology."

This volume reviews the latest global research results in computer applications. The book contains a selection of papers presented at the Fifth International Conference on Computer Applications in Production and Engineering, arranged by the International Federation for Information Processing and held in Beijing, China in May 1995.

Model based control has emerged as an important way to improve plant efficiency in the process industries, while meeting processing and operating policy constraints. The reader of Methods of Model Based Process Control will find state of the art reports on model based control technology presented by the world's leading scientists and experts from industry. All the important issues that a model based control system has to address are covered in depth, ranging from dynamic simulation and control-relevant identification to information integration. Specific emerging topics are also covered, such as robust control and nonlinear model predictive control. In addition to critical reviews of recent advances, the reader will find new ideas, industrial applications and views of future needs and challenges. Audience: A reference for graduate-level courses and a comprehensive guide for researchers and industrial control engineers in their exploration of the latest trends in the area.

Within CIME environments, one continually comes across a multitude of different working practices, network devices, information systems and manufacturing technologies. This heterogeneous environment extends to individual enterprises and can have profound effects on the efficiency and effectiveness of an organisation, and often results in symptoms such as: long product lead times, poor visibility of the product and process status, high product inventory and work-in progress, low data integrity, etc., as well as incurring excessive infrastructure costs. Having to select an appropriate information system to help achieve the business objectives of anyone manufacturing enterprise can be an awesome task. During the 1980s, vendor-independent communications such as MAP (Manu facturing Automation Protocol) and CNMA (Communications Network for Manufacturing Applications) brought standard, open communications to computer controlled industrial devices, but this alone was not enough to satisfy the more demanding requirements of creating and maintaining manufacturing applications. In order to create manufacturing solutions that effectively utilise Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) it is necessary to look beyond the standard communications protocols to how and why applications are developed."

Over the past two decades, research in the theory of Petri nets and the development of graphical tools has yielded a powerful methodology. The contributions in Petri Nets in Flexible and Agile Automation present theoretical development of Petri nets as well as in industrial applications to areas such as discrete- event control design, scheduling, performance evaluation and deadlock avoidance. These contributions also include comparative studies of Petri nets and other approaches. A primary theme of this book is to provide a unified approach to the applications of Petri nets in flexible and agile automation and, in that regard, a common notation and terminology is used. The book also allows readers to evaluate the benefits and applicability of state-of-the-art Petri net methods and apply CAD tools to problems of interest. Petri Nets in Flexible and Agile Automation is not only an essential reference for researchers, it is also a very useful tool for engineers, analysts and managers who are responsible for the design, implementation and operation of the next generation of manufacturing systems.

Process planning determines how a product is to be manufactured and is therefore a key element in the manufacturing process. It plays a major part in determining the cost of components and affects all factory activities, company competitiveness, production planning, production efficiency and product quality. It is a crucial link between design and manufacturing. There are several levels of process planning activities. Early in product engineering and development, process planning is responsible for determining the general method of production. The selected general method of production affects the design constraints. In the last stages of design, the designer has to consider ease of manufacturing in order for it to be economic. The part design data is transferred from engineering to manufacturing and process planners develop the detailed work package for manufacturing a part. Dimensions and tolerances are determined for each stage of processing of the workpiece. Process planning determines the sequence of operations and utilization of machine tools. Cutting tools, fixtures, gauges and other accessory tooling are also specified. Feeds, speeds and other parameters of the metal cutting and forming processes are determined.

This book provides up-to-date information about the promising use of feature technology for integrating computer-aided-design with subsequent applications. The book consists of 20 articles based upon the international IFIP conference on this topic held in Valenciennes, France in May 1994.

The aim of this book is to present important software tools, basic concepts, methods, and highly sophisticated applications of computerized symbolic manipulation to mechanics problems. An overview about general-purpose symbolic software is followed by general guidelines how to develop and implement high-quality computer algebra code. The theoretical background including modeling techniques for mechanical systems is provided which allows for the computer aided generation of the symbolic equation of motion for multibody systems. It is shown how the governing equations for different types of problems in structural mechanics can be automatically derived and how to implement finite element techniques via computer algebra software. Perturbation methods as a very powerful approach for nonlinear problems are discussed in detail and are demonstrated for a number of applications. The applications covered in this book represent some of the most advanced topics in the rapidly growing field of research on symbolic computation.

This book contains a collection of contributions related to the design and control of material flow systems in manufacturing. Material flow systems in manufacturing covers a broad spectrum of topics directly affecting issues related to facilities design, material handling and production planning and control. In selecting the papers to include in this book, the scope was limited to the design and operational control aspects related to the physical move ment of parts, tools, containers and material handling devices. Recent develop ments in this area naturally led to concentration on flow systems involving cellular manufacturing, and automated transport equipment such as automated guided vehicles. However, the concepts discussed have general applicability to a wide range of manufacturing flow problems. The book is organized in five major sections: 1. design integration and justification; 2. cell design and material handling considerations; 3. alternative material flow paths; 4. operational control problems; and 5. tooling requirements and transport equipment."

Intented as a primer' in manufacturing systems, this book concentrates primarily on the technology that is applied on the shop floor to automate the manufacturing process. Modern automation techniques are placed in the context of manufacturing systems approaches and more traditional production engineering approaches. This edition has been updated with new material including sample course work, examination questions and a comprehensively revised reading list. It provides a clear account of steps to automation and covers all the essential aspects of principle and application in an accessible way.

The Background to the Institute The NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI) 'People and Computers - Applying an Anthropocentric Approach to Integrated Production Systems and Organisations' came about after the distribution of a NATO fact sheet to BruneI University, which described the funding of ASls. The 'embryonic' director of the ASI brought this opportunity to the attention of the group of people, (some at BruneI and some from outside), who were together responsible for the teaching and management of the course in Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) in BruneI's Department of Manufacturing and Engineering Systems. This course had been conceived in 1986 and was envisaged as a vehicle for teaching manufacturing engineering students the technology of information integration through project work. While the original idea of the course had also included the organisational aspects of CIM, the human factors questions were not considered. This shortcoming was recognised and the trial run of the course in 1988 contained some lectures on 'people' issues. The course team were therefore well prepared and keen to explore the People, Organisation and Technology (POT) aspects of computer integration, as applied to industrial production. A context was proposed which would allow the inclusion of people from many different backgrounds and which would open up time and space for reflection. The proposal to organise a NATO ASI was therefore welcomed by all concerned.

Providing a comprehensive introduction to the multi-disciplinary function called Manufacturing Systems Engineering (MSE), this textbook aims to demonstrate the systems aspects of modern manufacturing operation, systems modelling and evaluation, and structured design of manufacturing systems. This second edition shows how to adopt structured, systematic approaches to the design and evaluation of the modern manufacturing plant with the purpose of optimizing performance of the whole factory. Broad in scope and integrating topics, this book should be useful to students and managers in manufacturing.

With the approach of the 21st century, and the current trends in manufacturing, the role of computer-controlled flexible manufacturing an integral part in the success of manufacturing enterprises. will take Manufacturing environments are changing to small batch (with batch sizes diminishing to a quantity of one), larger product variety, produc tion on demand with low lead times, with the ability to be 'agile.' This is in stark contrast to conventional manufacturing which has relied on economies of scale, and where change is viewed as a disruption and is therefore detrimental to production. Computer integrated manufac turing (CIM) and flexible manufacturing practices are a key component in the transition from conventional manufacturing to the 'new' manu facturing environment. While the use of computers in manufacturing, from controlling indi vidual machines (NC, Robots, AGVs etc.) to controlling flexible manu facturing systems (FMS) has advanced the flexibility of manufacturing environments, it is still far from reaching its full potential in the environment of the future. Great strides have been made in individual technologies and control of FMS has been the subject of considerable research, but computerized shop floor control is not nearly as flexible or integrated as hyped in industrial and academic literature. In fact, the integrated systems have lagged far behind what could be achieved with existing technology."

The central purpose of this book is to acquaint the reader especially with the cases of local search based learning as well as to introduce methods of constraint based reasoning, both with respect to their use in automated manufacturing. We restrict our attention to job shop scheduling as well as to one-machine scheduling with sequence dependent setup times. Additionally some design and planning issues in flexible manufacturing systems are considered. General purpose search methods which in particular include methods from local search such as simulated annealing, tabu search, and genetic algorithms, are the basic ingredients of the proposed intelligent knowledge-based scheduling systems, enriched by a number of constraint-based local decision rules in order to introduce problem specific knowledge.

The safe operation of computer systems continues to be a key issue in many applications where people, environment, investment, or goodwill can be at risk. Such applications include medical, railways, power generation and distribution, road transportation, aerospace, process industries, mining, military and many others. This book represents the proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Safety, Reliability and Security, held in Poznan, Poland, 27-29 October 1993. The conference reviews the state of the art, experiences and new trends in the areas of computer safety, reliability and security. It forms a platform for technology transfer between academia, industry and research institutions. In an expanding world-wide market for safe, secure and reliable computer systems SAFECOMP'93 provides an opportunity for technical developers, users, and legislators to exchange and review the experience, to consider the best technologies now available and to identify the skills and technologies required for the future. The papers were carefully selected by the International Program Com mittee of the Conference. The authors of the papers come from 16 different countries. The subjects covered include formal methods and models, safety assessment and analysis, verification and validation, testing, reliability issues and dependable software tech nology, computer languages for safety related systems, reactive systems technology, security and safety related applications. As to its wide international coverage, unique way of combining partici pants from academia, research and industry and topical coverage, SAFECOMP is outstanding among the other related events in the field."

Intelligent Manufacturing is a new disciplinary field which applies computer science, artificial intelligence, mechanical engineering and systems science to industrial manufacturing processes. This book presents a new integration architecture for implementing real-time distributed intelligent manufacturing systems.

This book covers the various aspects of the development of an integrated product and process modelling system using advanced computer technologies. It describes languages and methodologies for developing an information reference model, system architectures, a link with emerging new standards such as ISO/STEP and CIM/OSA, and a new approach for the definition of model semantics. It discusses practical aspects of the usage and integration of computer aided design, planning and production systems, and shows how the reference model can be applied. Concrete practical examples are given for two demonstration parts: a sheet metal part and a ship propeller blade. Much attention has been devoted to making the subject matter easy to understand for a wide audience. The reference model is presented in easy-to-grasp chunks in a graphical, informal way, and many figures support the text. The reader should gain a clear impression of the various technical aspects of CIM systems using modern techniques corresponding to emerging new standards. Aspects of future systems are also included.

This text explores the use of computer-aided design (CAD) techniques in the solution of mechanical engineering problems. The numerous applications presented, provide the basis for a broad theory covering the creation and application of CAD systems in practice. This work has led to the generation of a more general approach to design theory. The second edition contains two new chapters covering the research and application of constraint modelling theory that arose directly from the work presented in the first edition. The book's general approach covers all aspects of mechanical design ranging from the design and control of assemblies to the remote operation of coordinate measuring machines via a CAD system.

CIM-EUROPE 1992 is a record of the conference on Computer-Integrated Manufacturing held in Birmingham in May 1992 in which researchers, practitioners and decision makers in the CIM field were brought together. Altogether it comprises 44 papers by contributors mainly from Europe but also from the USA, China and Japan. The papers of this proceedings cover various European and international projects on the application and development of CIM worldwide and in special industries. The focus is placed on results and benefits. Readers will find this book helpful for the planning of their own CIM initiatives as it provides a unique opportunity to learn of the views of industry, research centres and universities.

Drawing on the experiences of four major EC countries, this book documents the way computer technology has changed the pattern of women's work in the manufacturing sector. The sixteen contributors are leading authorities on the subject and analyse how technology has transformed employment in the clothing industry, which is still the major employer of female blue-collar workers in the EC. The contributors assess the aspects of computerisation that particularly affect women's employment opportuni- ties: flexible hours, flexible work locations and flexible specialisation. The book also contains evaluations of post-Fordism and human-centred technology, two leading issues in the debate about the applications of artificial intelligence and computer-aided technology. These essays highlight a growing polarisation in the job market and suggest training schemes which can equip women for technical and managerial employment. This is a pioneering work; so far, most of the literature on women and computerisation has focussed on office automation and data processing. Computer-aided Manufacturing and Women's Employment makes an important contribution to the fields of technology, employment, women's work, business management and trade union studies.

In this monograph the author presents a thorough computational geometry approach to handling theoretical and practical problems arising from numerically controlled pocket machining. The approach unifies two scientific disciplines: computational geometry and mechanical engineering. Topics of practical importance that are dealt with include the selection of tool sizes, the determination of tool paths, and the optimization of tool paths. Full details of the algorithms are given from a practical point of view, including information on implementation issues. This practice-minded approach is embedded in a rigorous theoretical framework enabling concise statement of definitions and proof of the correctness and efficiency of the algorithms. In particular, the construction of Voronoi diagrams and their use for offset calculations are investigated in great detail. Based on Voronoi diagrams, a graph-like structure is introduced that serves as a high-level abstraction of the pocket geometry and provides the basis for algorithmically performing shape interrogation and path planning tasks. Finally, the efficiency and robustness of the approach is illustrated with figures showing pocketing examples that have been processed by the author's own implementation.

Reiner Anderl The Advanced Modelling part of the CAD*I project aimed at the development of a new generation of modelling techniques as a basic functionality of future CAD/CAM systems. The methodology and concepts for advanced modelling techniques, their availability in the communication interface of a CAD/CAM system and their influence on internal interfaces in the software architecture of a CAD/CAM system are fundamental results of advanced modelling work. These results form the basis for the development of a new generation of CAD/CAM systems which are called product modelling systems. CAD/CAM systems today mainly support the geometric description of a technical part or its description as a technical drawing. Advanced geometric modelling capabilities deal with parametric design functions embedded into CAD/CAM systems. However, development strategies for future CAD/CAM systems are directed toward the following: 1. The development of product modelling systems and 2. the development of integrated systems based on CAD, CAP (Computer Aided Planning), CAM and other CIM (Computer Integrated Manu facturing) functionalities."

Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) allows the integration of current islands of automation and the exploitation of opportunities offered by the application of information technology. More than 40 key papers have been assembled from the CIM-Europe's seventh annual conference held in May 1991, Turin, Italy. The speakers represent the leading edge research in areas such as concurrent engineering, production planning and control, quality management and e.g. implementation and business experiences in applying CIM. CIM-Europe is the dissemination of ESPRIT and the conference is jointly sponsored by the CEC and organised under the patronage of the Ministero della UniversitA e della Ricerca Scientifica e Technologica and CittA di Torino. Engineers, academics and researchers in CIM and related fields will find the book excellent reference material for current research and experience.

This volume contains a selection of papers presented at the MIT-JSME Workshop on Cooperative Product Development held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA, November 20/21, 1989. The 28 selected papers are organized into the following six categories: - Frameworks, dealing with problem-solving architectures, - Organizational issues, investigating strategies for organizing engineering activities for effective utilization of computer-aided tools, - Negotiation techniques, dealing with conflict detection and resolution between various agents, - Transaction management issues, dealing with interaction issues between the agents and the central communication medium, - Design methods, dealing with techniques utilized by individual agents, - Visualization techniques, including user Interfaces and physical modeling techniques. Sponsorship and financial support for the workshop was provided by the Japanese Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME), the Intelligent Engineering Systems Laboratory at MIT, and Bell Atlantic Knowledge Systems, Inc.