
IT in
manufacturing
0 reduction in lead times
# reduction in costs
# improved product quality.
Creating the integrated factory
To implement CIM, the DP system and the various automated
manufacturing systems must be closely tied together by electronic
links.
There must be a large computer (typically a mainframe) in
overall control of these systems, running special software such as
the TIME software described in the next section. This same
computer may also run the DP system and the various CIM
systems, in which case the links between these systems will be
purely software links.
The first phase may be to link the CAD system to the CAM
system