The International PROLAMAT Conference is an internationally well known event for demonstrating and evaluating activities and progress in the field of discrete manufacturing. Sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), the PROLAMAT is traditionally held every three years and it includes the whole area of advanced software technology for Design and Manufacturing in Discrete Manufacturing. Past editions of the International PROLAMA T Conference have explored: -Manufacturing Technology, -Advances in CAD/CAM, -Software for Discrete Manufacturing, -Software for Manufacturing. The Eight International PROLAMAT held in 1992 (Tokyo), focused on the theme of Man in CIM. The 1995 PROLAMAT (Berlin), featured the theme of Life Cycle Modelling for Innovative Products and Processes. This past emphasis on human aspects and innovation provides a strong foundation for the next PROLAMAT. Under the title: The globalization of manufacturing in the digital communications era of the 21th century: innovation, agility and the virtual enterprise, the 1998 conference expands the PROLAMAT scope to include teams and virtual enterprises which come together across space and time to develop new products and bring them to global markets. Manufacturing issues and information models have long been part of concurrent engineering; they are increasingly important in new product innovation and in the development of manufacturing plans and processes which span multiple companies along with multiple time zones.

In the latter half of the 20th century, forces have conspired to make the human community, at last, global. The easing of tensions between major nations, the expansion of trade to worldwide markets, widespread travel and cultural exchange, pervasive high-speed communications and automation, the explosion of knowledge, the streamlining of business, and the adoption of flexible methods have changed the face of manufacturing itself, and of research and education in manufacturing. The acceptance of the continuous improvement process as a means for organizations to respond quickly and effectively to swings in the global market has led to the demand for individuals educated in a broad range of cultural, organizational, and technical fields and capable of absorbing and adapting required knowledge and training throughout their careers. No longer will manufacturing research and education focus on an industrial sector or follow a national trend, but rather will aim at enabling international teams of companies to cooperate in rapidly designing, prototyping, and manufacturing products. The successful enterprise of the 21st century will be characterized by an organizational structure that efficiently responds to customer demands and changing global circumstances, a corporate culture that empowers employees at all levels and encourages constant communication among related groups, and a technological infrastructure that fully supports process improvement and integration. In changing itself to keep abreast of the broader transformation in manufacturing, the enterprise must look first at its organization and culture, and thereafter at supporting technologies.

On November 9-11, 1998,85 participants, representing 17 countries, gathered in Aubum Hills, Michigan, at the Chrysler Tech Center, to attend a workshop "SSM'98" (or Sculptured Surface Machining '98) organized by IFIP Working Group 5.3. This was the first major workshop on sculptured surface machining since the CAM-I sponsored conference "Machining Impossible Surfaces" held in 1981. The purpose of the SSM'98 workshop, entitled "Machining Impossible Shapes", was to promote a cross-fertilization of ideas among three communities: industrial users, CAM software developers and academic researchers. There were 17 participants who were "industrial users", 15 represented CAM software developers, 4 were from the machine tool industry, with the remainder being academic researchers. The format of the meeting included 40 presentations in 9 sessions, 4 keynote speeches and a sufficient amount of time for informal discussion amongst the participants. One of the most valuable aspects of the workshop was the opportunity for participants to meet informally and to discuss their mutual interests. This led to two "participant organized" sessions on five axis machining and on machine tool controllers.

Feature-based technology is the key factor towards meeting the increasingly high demands of improving and speeding up the product development process from concept to customer feedback, and is therefore expected to be able to provide for a better approach to integrate the complete product design process chain. Feature Based Product Life-Cycle Modelling is dedicated to exploring the progress towards an integrated solution for the product creation process based on feature technology. Hence, it encompasses significant phases of the product creation process, from conceptual design to recycling, including the following topics: *Life-phases modelling; *Knowledge based engineering; *Multiple-view geometric modelling; *Technological links among assemblies; *Manufacturing process cost estimation; *Manufacturing modelling; *Machining preparation; *Product deterioration prediction; *Product recovery estimation. For each topic, a state of the art, theoretic bases, tentative solutions and illustrative examples are detailed, demonstrating the successful application of feature technology to the modelling of innovative products and the efficient control of their design. The book is a selection of proceedings from the International Conference on Feature Modelling in Advanced Design-for-the-Life-Cycle Systems (FEATS 2001), which was sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and held in Valenciennes, France in June 2001.

Feature-based technology is the key factor towards meeting the increasingly high demands of improving and speeding up the product development process from concept to customer feedback, and is therefore expected to be able to provide for a better approach to integrate the complete product design process chain.

Feature Based Product Life-Cycle Modelling is dedicated to exploring the progress towards an integrated solution for the product creation process based on feature technology. Hence, it encompasses significant phases of the product creation process, from conceptual design to recycling, including the following topics:
*Life-phases modelling;
*Knowledge based engineering;
*Multiple-view geometric modelling;
*Technological links among assemblies;
*Manufacturing process cost estimation;
*Manufacturing modelling;
*Machining preparation;
*Product deterioration prediction;
*Product recovery estimation.

For each topic, a state of the art, theoretic bases, tentative solutions and illustrative examples are detailed, demonstrating the successful application of feature technology to the modelling of innovative products and the efficient control of their design.

The book is a selection of proceedings from the International Conference on Feature Modelling in Advanced Design-for-the-Life-Cycle Systems (FEATS 2001), which was sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and held in Valenciennes, France in June 2001.

On November 9-11, 1998,85 participants, representing 17 countries, gathered in Aubum Hills, Michigan, at the Chrysler Tech Center, to attend a workshop "SSM'98" (or Sculptured Surface Machining '98) organized by IFIP Working Group 5.3. This was the first major workshop on sculptured surface machining since the CAM-I sponsored conference "Machining Impossible Surfaces" held in 1981. The purpose of the SSM'98 workshop, entitled "Machining Impossible Shapes," was to promote a cross-fertilization of ideas among three communities: industrial users, CAM software developers and academic researchers. There were 17 participants who were "industrial users," 15 represented CAM software developers, 4 were from the machine tool industry, with the remainder being academic researchers. The format of the meeting included 40 presentations in 9 sessions, 4 keynote speeches and a sufficient amount of time for informal discussion amongst the participants. One of the most valuable aspects of the workshop was the opportunity for participants to meet informally and to discuss their mutual interests. This led to two "participant organized" sessions on five axis machining and on machine tool controllers.

In the latter half of the 20th century, forces have conspired to make the human community, at last, global. The easing of tensions between major nations, the expansion of trade to worldwide markets, widespread travel and cultural exchange, pervasive high-speed communications and automation, the explosion of knowledge, the streamlining of business, and the adoption of flexible methods have changed the face of manufacturing itself, and of research and education in manufacturing. The acceptance of the continuous improvement process as a means for organizations to respond quickly and effectively to swings in the global market has led to the demand for individuals educated in a broad range of cultural, organizational, and technical fields and capable of absorbing and adapting required knowledge and training throughout their careers. No longer will manufacturing research and education focus on an industrial sector or follow a national trend, but rather will aim at enabling international teams of companies to cooperate in rapidly designing, prototyping, and manufacturing products. The successful enterprise of the 21st century will be characterized by an organizational structure that efficiently responds to customer demands and changing global circumstances, a corporate culture that empowers employees at all levels and encourages constant communication among related groups, and a technological infrastructure that fully supports process improvement and integration. In changing itself to keep abreast of the broader transformation in manufacturing, the enterprise must look first at its organization and culture, and thereafter at supporting technologies.

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.