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Computer Integrated Manufacturing

 
Sci-Tech Dictionary: computer-integrated manufacturing
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(kəm′pyüd·ər ¦int·ə′grād·əd ′man·ə′fak·chər·iŋ)

(industrial engineering) A computer-automated system in which individual engineering, production, marketing, and support functions of a manufacturing enterprise are organized; functional areas such as design, analysis, planning, purchasing, cost accounting, inventory control, and distribution are linked through the computer with factory floor functions such as materials handling and management, providing direct control and monitoring of all process operations. Abbreviated CIM.

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: computer-integrated manufacturing
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Data-driven automation that affects all systems or subsystems within a manufacturing environment: design and development, production (see CAD/CAM), marketing and sales, and field support and service. Basic manufacturing functions as well as materials-handling and inventory control can also be simulated by computers before the system is built in an attempt to eliminate wastage. See also artificial intelligence, expert systems, robotics.

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Sci-Tech Encyclopedia: Computer-integrated manufacturing
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A system in which individual engineering, production, and marketing and support functions of a manufacturing enterprise are organized into a computer-integrated system. Functional areas such as design, analysis, planning, purchasing, cost accounting, inventory control, and distribution are linked through the computer with factory floor functions such as materials handling and management, providing direct control and monitoring of all process operations.

Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) may be viewed as the successor technology which links computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), robotics, numerically controlled machine tools (NCMT), automatic storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), flexible manufacturing systems (FMS), and other computer-based manufacturing technology. Computer-integrated manufacturing is also known as integrated computer-aided manufacturing (ICAM). Autofacturing includes computer-integrated manufacturing, but also includes conventional machinery, human operators, and their relationships within a total system. See also Computer-aided design and manufacturing; Flexible manufacturing system; Robotics.

Agile manufacturing and lean manufacturing

The CIM factory concept includes both soft and hard technology. Soft technology can be thought of as the intellect or brains of the factory, and hard technology as the muscles of the factory. The type of hard technology employed depends upon the products or family of products made by the factory. For metalworking, typical processes would include milling, turning, forming, casting, grinding, forging, drilling, routing, inspecting, coating, moving, positioning, assembling, and packaging. For semiconductor device fabrication, typical processes would include layout, etching, lithography, striping, lapping, polishing, and cleaning, as well as moving, positioning, assembling, and packaging. More important than the list of processes is their organization.

Whatever the products, the CIM factory is made up of a part fabrication center, a component assembly center, and a product assembly center. Centers are subdivided into work cells, cells into stations, and stations into processes. Processes comprise the basic transformations of raw materials into parts which will be assembled into products. In order for the factory to achieve maximum efficiency, raw material must come into the factory at the left end and move smoothly and continuously through the factory to emerge as a product at the right end. No part must ever be standing; each part is either being worked on or is on its way to the next workstation.

In the part fabrication center, raw material is transformed into piece parts. Some piece parts move by robot carrier or automatic guided vehicle to the component fabrication center. Other piece parts (excess capacity) move out of the factory to sister factories for assembly. There is no storage of work in process and no warehousing in the CIM factory. To accomplish this objective, part movement is handled by robots or conveyors of various types. These materials handlers serve as the focus or controlling element of work cells and workstations. Each work cell contains a number of workstations. The station is where the piece part transformation occurs from a raw material to a part, after being worked on by a particular process.

Components, also known as subassemblies, are created in the component assembly center. Here materials handlers of various types, and other reprogrammable automation, put piece parts together. Components may then be transferred to the product assembly center, or out of the factory (excess capacity) to sister factories for final assembly operations there. Parts from other factories may come into the component assembly center of this factory, and components from other factories may come into the product assembly center of this factory. The final product moves out of the product assembly center to the product distribution center or in some cases directly to the end user. See also Automation.

The premise of CIM is that a network is created in which every part of the enterprise works for the maximum benefit of the whole enterprise. Independent of the degree of automation employed, for example, whether it is robotic or not, the optimal organization of computer hardware and software is essential. The particular processes employed by the factory are specific to the product being made, but the functions performed can be virtually unchanged in the CIM factory no matter what the product. These typical functions include forecasting, designing, predicting, controlling, inventorying, grouping, monitoring, releasing, planning, scheduling, ordering, changing, communicating, and analyzing.

Marketing Dictionary: computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM)
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Computer-based system of communication among all departments involved directly or indirectly in the manufacture of a product whereby all data concerning each department are entered into a data flow so that information from one department is available to all other departments. The goal of a CIM system is to maintain consistent product quality and to produce the product in an efficient time period.

Business Dictionary: Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM)
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Integrated computerized manufacturing system combining all the elements of Computer-Assisted Design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM). This is an interactive computer system usually installed on a Local Area Network linking several related departmental functions such as design, engineering, production, and marketing. The CIM concept insures rapid high-quality product development and manufacturing through real-time coordination of all related functions. See also Computer-Assisted Design (CAD).

Accounting Dictionary: Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM)
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Computer information systems utilizing a shared manufacturing data base for engineering design, factory production, and information management.

Wikipedia: Computer Integrated Manufacturing
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Integrated Manufacturing control system.jpg|thumb|240px|CIM & production control system, 1992.]] Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) in engineering is a method of manufacturing in which the entire production process is controlled by computer. The traditionaly separated process methods are joined through a computer by CIM. This integration allows the processes to exchange information with each other and enable them to initiate actions. Through this integration, manufacturing can be faster and with fewer errors. Yet, the main advantage is the ability to create automated manufacturing processes. Typically CIM relies on closed-loop control processes, based on real-time input from sensors. It is also known as flexible design and manufacturing.

Contents

Overview

The term "Computer Integrated Manufacturing" is both a method of manufacturing and the name of a computer-automated system in which individual engineering, production, marketing, and support functions of a manufacturing enterprise are organized. In a CIM system functional areas such as design, analysis, planning, purchasing, cost accounting, inventory control, and distribution are linked through the computer with factory floor functions such as materials handling and management, providing direct control and monitoring of all process operations.

As method of manufacturing, three components distinguish CIM from other manufacturing methodologies:

  • Means for data storage, retrieval, manipulation and presentation;
  • Mechanisms for sensing state and modifying processes;
  • Algorithms for uniting the data processing component with the sensor/modification component.

CIM is an example of the implementation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in manufacturing.

CIM implies that there are at least two computers exchanging information, e.g. the controller of a arm robot and a microcontroller of a CNC machine.

Some factors involved when considering a CIM implementation are the production volume, the experience of the company or personnel to make the integration, the level of the integration into the product itself and the integration of the production processes. CIM is most useful where a high level of ICT is used in the company or facility, such as CAD/CAM systems, the availability of process planning and its data. Although none of what this says is correct.

History

The idea of "Digital Manufacturing" was prominent the 1980s, when Computer Integrated Manufacturing was developed and promoted by machine tool manufacturers and the Computer and Automated Systems Association and Society of Manufacturing Engineers (CASA/SME).

"CIM is the integration of total manufacturing enterprise by using integrated systems and data communication coupled with new managerial philosophies that improve organizational and personnel efficiency." ERHUM

Computer Integrated Manufacturing topics

Key Challenges

There are three major challenges to development of a smoothly operating Computer Integrated Manufacturing system:

  • Integration of components from different suppliers: When different machines, such as CNC, conveyors and robots, are using different communications protocols. In the case of AGVs, even differing lengths of time for charging the batteries may cause problems.
  • Data integrity: The higher the degree of automation, the more critical is the integrity of the data used to control the machines. While the CIM system saves on labor of operating the machines, it requires extra human labor in ensuring that there are proper safeguards for the data signals that are used to control the machines.
  • Process control: Computers may be used to assist the human operators of the manufacturing facility, but there must always be a competent engineer on hand to handle circumstances which could not be foreseen by the designers of the control software.

Subsystems in Computer Integrated Manufacturing

A Computer Integrated Manufacturing system is not the same as a "lights out" factory, which would run completely independent of human intervention, although it is a big step in that direction. Part of the system involves flexible manufacturing, where the factory can be quickly modified to produce different products, or where the volume of products can be changed quickly with the aid of computers. Some or all of the following subsystems may be found in a CIM operation:

Computer-aided techniques:

Devices and equipment required:

Technologies:

Others:

CIMOSA

CIMOSA (Computer Integrated Manufacturing Open System Architecture), is a 1990s European proposal for an open system architecture for CIM developed by the AMICE Consortium as a series of ESPRIT projects.[1][2] The goal of CIMOSA was "to help companies to manage change and integrate their facilities and operations to face world wide competition. It provides a consistent architectural framework for both enterprise modeling and enterprise integration as required in CIM environments".[3]

CIMOSA provides a solution for business integration with four types of products:[4]

  • The CIMOSA Enterprise Modeling Framework, which provides a reference architecture for enterprise architecture
  • CIMOSA IIS, a standard for physical and application integration.
  • CIMOSA Systems Life Cycle, is a life cycle model for CIM development and deployment.
  • Inputs to standardization, basics for international standard development.

CIMOSA according to Vernadat (1996), coined the term business process and introduced the process-based approach for integrated enterprise modeling based on a cross-boundaries approach, which opposed to traditional function or activity-based approaches. With CIMOSA also the concept of an "Open System Architecture" (OSA) for CIM was introduced, which was designed to be vendor-independent, and constructed with standardised CIM modules. Here to the OSA is "described in terms of their function, information, resource, and organizational aspects. This should be designed with structured engineering methods and made operational in a modular and evolutionary architecture for operational use".[3]

Application

There are multiple areas of usage:

See also

References

  1. ^ AMICE Consortium (1991). Open System Architecture for CIM, Research Report of ESPRIT Project 688, Vol. 1, Springer-Verlag, 1989.
  2. ^ AMICE Consortium (1991), Open System Architecture, CIMOSA, AD 1.0, Architecture Description, ESPRIT Consortium AMICE, Brussels, Belgium.
  3. ^ a b F. Vernadat (1996). Enterprise Modeling and Integration. p.40
  4. ^ Richard C. Dorf, Andrew Kusiak (1994). Handbook of Design, Manufacturing, and Automation‎. p.1014

Further reading

  • Yoram Korem, Computer Control of Manufacturing Systems, McGraw Hill, Inc. 1983, 287 pp, ISBN 0-07-035341-7
  • Singh, V (1997). The Cim Debacle: Methodologies to Facilitate Software Interoperability. Springer. ISBN 9813083212.
  • A. de Toni and S. Tonchia, Manufacturing Flexibility: a literature review International Journal of Production Research, 1998, vol. 36, no. 6, 1587-617.
  • Jean-Baptiste Waldner (1992), Principles of Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 047193450X
  • Jean-Baptiste Waldner (1990), CIM, les nouvelles perspectives de la production, DUNOD- BORDAS, ISBN 9782040198206

External links

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Blacksmith-hammer-anvil-50x50.png Metalworking
 
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CNC, CAD, and CAM
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Grinding and lapping
Machining and milling
Machine tooling
Terminology
Casting · Fabrication · Forming · Jewellery · Machining · Metallurgy · Smithing · Tools & Terminology · Welding


References

  1. ^ AMICE Consortium (1991). Open System Architecture for CIM, Research Report of ESPRIT Project 688, Vol. 1, Springer-Verlag, 1989.
  2. ^ AMICE Consortium (1991), Open System Architecture, CIMOSA, AD 1.0, Architecture Description, ESPRIT Consortium AMICE, Brussels, Belgium.
  3. ^ a b F. Vernadat (1996). Enterprise Modeling and Integration. p.40
  4. ^ Richard C. Dorf, Andrew Kusiak (1994). Handbook of Design, Manufacturing, and Automation‎. p.1014


References

  1. ^ AMICE Consortium (1991). Open System Architecture for CIM, Research Report of ESPRIT Project 688, Vol. 1, Springer-Verlag, 1989.
  2. ^ AMICE Consortium (1991), Open System Architecture, CIMOSA, AD 1.0, Architecture Description, ESPRIT Consortium AMICE, Brussels, Belgium.
  3. ^ a b F. Vernadat (1996). Enterprise Modeling and Integration. p.40
  4. ^ Richard C. Dorf, Andrew Kusiak (1994). Handbook of Design, Manufacturing, and Automation‎. p.1014

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