Protocols for communicating in the factory: Five General Motors truck and bus plants and the Saginaw Division´s `factory of the future¿ are set to he MAP-implemented this year

The description is given of the Manufacturing Automation Protocol (MAP), a set of communication protocols based on a bus configuration, in which network stations are wired together with a common bus so all can receive all messages. Any station, when sending a message, designates in the address portion of that message where it should go. All other stations receive the transmitted message and examine its address field (a code for the particular station to which the message is being sent). If a station decodes its own address, it takes the appropriate action; otherwise it ignores the message. MAP development programs have evolved to the point of making products available for network implementation, and users should begin planning for MAP or inquiring about MAP products from computer and communications suppliers. The first plant-wide implementation of MAP at General Motors will take place in 1986 at five truck and bus plants and at a factory-of-the-future project in Saginaw, Michigan.