Communications for Manufacturing

The proceedings of a conference concerning open communications - the basis for cost-effective Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) - are presented. The congress was sponsored by the Commission of the European Communities, DG XIII (Telecommunications, Information Industries and Innovation), at Stuttgart's Annual Machine Tool Fair in September 1990. The book provides an overview of international initiatives on the implementation of open communications in manufacturing/engineering environments, including available communication products on the market. Topics covered encompass industrial needs for manufacturing, pilot implementations in the USA, Japan and Europe, and an introduction to MMS (Manufacturing Message Specification) and NMT (Network Management). Technological solutions that enable the implementation of real multi-vendor environments and allow the full integration from design to manufacture or from order to distribution are also explained. Furthermore, the book highlights the work done in the ESPRIT flagship project, "Communication Network for Manufacturing Applications".