FROM ISLANDS OF AUTOMATION TO THE NEW WORLD OF UNIX
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb057524 |
| Published date | 01 November 1988 |
| Date | 01 November 1988 |
| Pages | 3-6 |
| Author | Andrew G. Howard |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
FROM ISLANDS OF AUTOMATION
TO THE NEW WORLD OF UNIX
by Andrew G. Howard
UniSoft Ltd, London
Computers in Manufacturing
Manufacturing companies have over the last few years, after a relatively slow start, increasingly automated
their business environment, using computer assistance wherever applicable.
The work done has predominantly been based on three separate development strands.
CNC — Computerised Numerical Control
This involves the control of machine tools by numerical
means, moving machine elements such as work tables
and tools in synchronised conjunction to generate a
desired component geometry. CNC goes back to the
early 1960s and has increasingly moved away from
largely analogue to totally digital controls, making the
use of standard computers as control units more
common.
CAD/CAE — Computer-aided Design/Computer-aided
Engineering
Computers are today widely used in CAD/CAE
applications to develop and design products. Originally
based on single-user machines, multi-user workstations
are now common, with many systems using UNIX. The
need for independent workstations was promoted by:
• the need for "unusual" peripherals such as
graphics terminals, digitising tables and plotters,
and
• the high processor usage of certain scientific
processes which would at times load the
processor to a degree where it could not be
used by other applications within constraints of
reasonable transaction response times.
Other stand-alone solutions were derived from the
above to deal with specific manufacturing tasks, such
as NC tape preparation and computer-aided process
planning.
The whole area is generally referred to today
as CADCAM (Computer-aided Design, Computer-aided
Manufacture).
MIS — Management Information Systems
These systems represent the traditional computing
functions in a business, often mainframe-based and
even in a mini-computer environment operating in a
mainframe mode of individual systems residing on one
machine and competing for a common resource.
Integration between CNC, CAD/CAE and MIS sub-
systems generally did not exist, and even today
integration of computer systems is still a relative rarity.
Until recently, when communications between different
computers became easier, two extreme alternatives
tended to exist.
(1) stand-alone "islands of automation", i.e. specific
localised solutions to problems, but with no data
availability to users outside each area of
automation;
(2) the quest for a large monolithic "corporate
database", which, due to the size of the project
and the changing needs of a business, rarely
achieved a significant level of implementation.
The current view on the resolution of this dilemma is
CIM "computer-integrated manufacturing".
CIM
CIM is today understood in its broadest sense as the
total integrated computerisation of the technical,
administrative and management activities of a
manufacturing business, and as such covers all
business activities from design and development
through to process control, manufacturing resource
planning,
business planning and financial control.
The ultimate strategic objective is the "automated
factory".
Clearly any business system breaks down into many
sub-systems, each with its own functional needs, its
own boundaries and connectives to other sub-systems.
CIM implies a set of task-specific computer applications,
each automating a process or set of processes and
each linked through datalinks to one or more other
computer application. Each application will normally
have one or more interfaces.
Yesterday's islands of automation failed to bring real
benefits because:
• sub-optimisation at local level was accepted as
a goal in its own right
• data had to be entered independently into each
sub-system and users had no data access
across sub-systems
• management had no ready access to the bulk
of company data and could not use it for
company-wide decision making
• local changes of plans and local problems were
not automatically reflected in the plan execution
of other sub-systems.
IMDS
November/December
1988
3
To continue reading
Request your trial