Experts look ahead to the day of the full-blown computer-integrated automatic factory

Discusses the future potential of the Computer Integrated Manufacturing System (CIMS) which represents an automatic computerized job-shop section. CIMS has the flexibility of a group of general-purpose machine tools, and is composed of several NC machine tools, integrated with materials-handling systems, to perform machining operations on randomly sequenced parts. All parts of the system normally operate under computer direction. The `Flexible Manufacturing Systems´ concept of multipart, mid volume production machining systems is also discussed. Integration of CAD and CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) concepts is examined.