Contract manufacturing: solutions for the 21st century

Manufacturing companies in the twenty-first century will have a wide variety of tools and a strong background of technological innovations at their disposal. For example, faster and more powerful computers with a wider range of use are becoming prevalent in the manufacturing environment. Computer numerical control, robotics, lasers, vision systems, rapid prototyping, ASICs, fuzzy logic, neural networks, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and expert systems are only a few of the ways that computers are revolutionizing the modern manufacturing company. However, these technologies are not cheap, nor are they easily utilized and controlled. This leads to great opportunities in the area of contract manufacturing. Contract manufacturing in the context of this paper is viewed from an engineering perspective. The paper discusses some of the principles of contract manufacturing along with some examples of areas where contract manufacturing can be effective