Latest developments in CIM

Manufacturing enterprises play an important role in improving the economic environment of a country. The economic environment of many developed countries is under threat from emerging industrialised countries. Today, the capability of producing high quality products with shorter delivery times and the ability to produce according to the diverse customer requirements have become the characteristics required of order-qualifiers for manufacturing industries. Hence, application of intelligent manufacturing systems and computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) has become the necessity to overcome the above issues while retaining the employment level and revenue of a country in today's highly competitive global market. With the developments taking place in CIM and its related technologies, the application of CIM in manufacturing enterprises has become a reality. This paper focuses on latest research developments in CIM and a new CIM wheel proposed to satisfy the emerging technological application of virtual enterprises. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.