New Trends in Manufacturing: Converging to Service and Intelligent Systems

Abstract

Manufacturing processes and models have been influenced by the linear approach, called Fordism, for almost a century, since the first automated devices and discrete control systems were introduced. At the same time, new ideas to organize manufacturing process have appeared that question the absolute dominance of gain in scale. More recently, new criteria invaded the scenario of manufacturing where quality led manufacturing process to a phase based on accurate supply chain and surrounded by ubiquitous computer and robotic devices. A very precise manufacturing processes can now be designed and implemented in almost all sectors of industry, where special sub-processes can be delivered by other players. In this new scenario, a new paradigm for manufacturing design emerged, based on a set of very specialized services that could be arranged to provide new creative and sustainable processes. In this paper we go into this new paradigm for manufacturing (process) design comparing it with the classic approach that relies on layers classified as production plant, control (software oriented) and supervisory.