Intelligent manufacturing systems

As manufacturing complexity increases, and as factory yields, equipment reliability and equipment utilization each approach 100%, one must look for alternative improvement programs to help reduce manufacturing costs and assist in managing increasing factory complexity. There are a number of possibilities, such as automating routine decision-making processes involved in manufacturing, resulting in faster or more cost-effective decisions, or capturing and applying manufacturing knowledge to reduce the time necessary to detect, analyze and solve manufacturing problems. Either possibility can result in significant savings in productivity improvement or cost reduction, or in avoidance of significant losses. Such strategic programs are in addition to the current automation programs which help manage factory performance, i.e., physical automation to replace human physical activity, and information automation to replace routine human data gathering or data analyses procedures.<>