Computer Integrated Manufacturing

This book is the outcome of a NATO Advanced Study Institute held in Istanbul, Turkey, August 30 - September 12, 1987. The subject of the book is computer integrated manufacturing. The purpose is to bring together decision support, artificial intelligence, knowledge based and fuzzy systems and integrate them into advanced manufacturing technologies, production planning, flexible and programmable systems of the future. European and Japanese perspectives lay the ground works for the current practices from the perspective of industry and research. The challenges are: management decision support systems; artificial intelligence and knowledge based systems. Management of uncertainties is dealt with as frontier treatment of fuzzy sets and fuzzy logics. Various models of manufacturing technology related operation research models attempt to bring answers to problems of flexibility and integration, shape modelling and automated inspection. Only four articles deal with current status. In the remaining seventeen articles, the reader will find results associated with current research that attempts to find answers to challenging problems forecasted to be in the factories of the future.