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Remanufacturing and Advanced Machining
• Creativity and innovation are required in all aspects of a manufacturing
enterprise for it to be competitive.
• Developments in innovative process technologies will change both the
scope and scale of manufacturing.
• Environmental issues will be predominant as the global ecosystem becomes
strained by growing populations and the emergence of new high-technology economies.
• Information and knowledge will be shared by manufacturing enterprises
and the marketplace for effective decision-making.
• Global distribution of highly competitive production resources will be a
critical factor in the organization of manufacturing enterprises to be successful in this changing technical, political, and economic climate.
Essentially, CIM is a process of using computers and communication networks to
transform technological units into a highly interconnected manufacturing system.
Over the decades, interpretation of CIM gradually has changed from computerized
work-cells, large-scale automation, CAD/CAM, interfacing and communication
concepts to a contemporary mature definition where CIM is an integration effort
that embraces a whole organization across all functional units. In order to achieve
an effective integration, an in-depth understanding of all technologies and comprehensive knowledge of all activities across all functional units in an enterprise is
required. Since computers are merely tools that facilitate processing and exchanging
information, successful application of CIM requires, first, integration of functional
units and software applications/systems. Today, with sophisticated manufacturing
equipment and available advanced ICT tools, it is possible to reach the objectives of
CIM with ease (Nagalingam and Lin, 2008).
While the concept of CIM is broadening its application to manufacturing and
other industries, new terms have been coined by various academics, perhaps in an
attempt at better understanding and implementation of CIM, and maybe to demonstrate efforts of the researchers/consultants to be innovative. Among these terms
reflecting the dynamic nature of improvements in manufacturing applications are
lean manufacturing (LM), just-in-time (JIT), cellular manufacturing, concurrent
engineering, agile manufacturing, responsive manufacturing, holonic manufacturing, distributed manufacturing, and collaborative manufacturing. Although new
terms like these are generated every few years, the concept of CIM is far broader
and able to embrace all of them, providing the required features offered by these
concepts or strategies. Therefore, CIM still stands as the innovative application for
yesterday’s issues, but also newer applications required today and for the future
(Nagalingam and Lin, 2008).
The introduction of an integrated manufacturing system provides many potential
benefits, including (Nagalingam and Lin, 2008):
1. Easier communication enabled between a functional unit of an enterprise
and other relevant functional units
2. Accurate data transfer between a manufacturing plant and/or subcontracting facilities
Remanufacturing and Advanced Machining
• Creativity and innovation are required in all aspects of a manufacturing
enterprise for it to be competitive.
• Developments in innovative process technologies will change both the
scope and scale of manufacturing.
• Environmental issues will be predominant as the global ecosystem becomes
strained by growing populations and the emergence of new high-technology economies.
• Information and knowledge will be shared by manufacturing enterprises
and the marketplace for effective decision-making.
• Global distribution of highly competitive production resources will be a
critical factor in the organization of manufacturing enterprises to be successful in this changing technical, political, and economic climate.
Essentially, CIM is a process of using computers and communication networks to
transform technological units into a highly interconnected manufacturing system.
Over the decades, interpretation of CIM gradually has changed from computerized
work-cells, large-scale automation, CAD/CAM, interfacing and communication
concepts to a contemporary mature definition where CIM is an integration effort
that embraces a whole organization across all functional units. In order to achieve
an effective integration, an in-depth understanding of all technologies and comprehensive knowledge of all activities across all functional units in an enterprise is
required. Since computers are merely tools that facilitate processing and exchanging
information, successful application of CIM requires, first, integration of functional
units and software applications/systems. Today, with sophisticated manufacturing
equipment and available advanced ICT tools, it is possible to reach the objectives of
CIM with ease (Nagalingam and Lin, 2008).
While the concept of CIM is broadening its application to manufacturing and
other industries, new terms have been coined by various academics, perhaps in an
attempt at better understanding and implementation of CIM, and maybe to demonstrate efforts of the researchers/consultants to be innovative. Among these terms
reflecting the dynamic nature of improvements in manufacturing applications are
lean manufacturing (LM), just-in-time (JIT), cellular manufacturing, concurrent
engineering, agile manufacturing, responsive manufacturing, holonic manufacturing, distributed manufacturing, and collaborative manufacturing. Although new
terms like these are generated every few years, the concept of CIM is far broader
and able to embrace all of them, providing the required features offered by these
concepts or strategies. Therefore, CIM still stands as the innovative application for
yesterday’s issues, but also newer applications required today and for the future
(Nagalingam and Lin, 2008).
The introduction of an integrated manufacturing system provides many potential
benefits, including (Nagalingam and Lin, 2008):
1. Easier communication enabled between a functional unit of an enterprise
and other relevant functional units
2. Accurate data transfer between a manufacturing plant and/or subcontracting facilities