Information Technology for Automated Manufacturing Enterprises: Recent Developments and Current Research Issues

Abstract

Information technology has played an important role in the continuing efforts of industries worldwide to make their manufacturing systems, processes, and overall enterprises more agile and productive. It is important that researchers and practitioners working in areas related to flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) address the ramifications of these emerging information technologies and their impact on manufacturing system development and operations. In view of these developments, we see a need to strategically describe both the potential of the leading information technologies for the FMS research community and their future trend. Enterprise information technology is having a major impact on all manufacturing organizations, large or small. It especially has had an impact on the system applications for coordinating the complex array of manufacturing data, business decisions, work flows, and processes, which have become increasingly important for today’s enterprises to maintain their competitive edge. From that standpoint, information technology has played an important role in the effort to make organizations more integrated and productive. With the capability of computer software, hardware, and communications growing rapidly, the technological bottleneck gradually has shifted toward enterprise integration and interorganizational coordination. We identify the following agenda for research in the targeted areas: