Shared computer-integrated manufacturing for various types of production environment

Small manufacturing companies make up the base industrial backbone of many countries including the USA. Even though CIM is generally believed to help manufacturers to compete globally, small companies are not able to adopt the technology owing to CIM′s substantial investments and its associated high risk. An alternative CIM approach is urgently needed. Proposes a shared CIM system for various types of production environments including make-to-stock (MTS), assembled-to-order (ATO), make-to-order (MTO), and engineered-to-order (ETO). Analysis based on production logic was performed in order to develop a series of guidelines for the successful application of shared CIM systems in the above production companies. It was found that the shared facility capacity allocation was the most important activity in the production-planning process, the degree of co-operation being highest in an ETO environment. The key success in the operation of the system will depend on the co-operation of production planning in MTS and ATO environments, co-operation of production control in an MTO environment, and co-operation in engineering-design and production control in an ETO environment.