Application of CASE within manufacturing industry

The current emphasis of many manufacturing organisations is on the achievement of internationally competitive standards. Computer-based manufacturing technology is recognised as a key to this. However, despite the growing dependence on information systems in the support of advanced manufacture, the manufacturing industry has been slow to adopt approaches and tools to effectively implement such systems. A significant cultural gap exists between manufacturing systems engineers, unable to specify their requirements adequately, and vendors of information technology, unable to appreciate the problems associated with manufacturing. The research presented here is aimed at investigating the relevance of software engineering and CASE in the specification of requirements for manufacturing information systems