The trend toward factories of the future, indicates that world class manufacturing systems will have no more than 20 highly productive machines with an automated material handling system. These factories will operate in Just-In-Time mode under computer control. The machines, in general, will be more versatile. It is also expected that by the year 2000, cutting speed will be up to 10 times faster than today's standards. Reduced lot sizes will dramatically increase the demand on material handling cooperative workstations will have to be close to each other. The numerical control code will not be generated until the specific routing for a certain order is known. A typical factory order will require only a few units up to less than a hundred. Every order will be produced in exact quantity Just-In-Time for shipping, hence with no inventory.