
Students Guide to Information
Technology
Computer-integrated manufacturing
Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) covers a range of
technologies and techniques that seek to use the power of the
computer to ensure that all activities, equipment, and processes in a
manufacturing organization work together in the most effective
way to achieve its objectives. The word 'integrated' means that
CIM is more than merely the piecemeal application of the
automated production techniques described later in this chapter -
robots, NC machines, automatic materials handling, and so on. A
central concern is the flow and the use of information, so that each