Design Rules for a Cim System

The information in this book was developed within the European Strategic Programming of Research and Development in Information Technology (ESPRIT). The purpose of this volume is to propose a European systems architecture for Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) - one of the aims of the ESPRIT project. There three main objectives are: to analyse and modularise a chosen CIM scenario into twenty-four separate sub-systems; to define and describe the minimum functional provisions which each sub-system must include in order to be classified as an `ESPRIT specified' CIM sub-system; to identify and explain the inter-relationships which need to exist between each particular sub-system, and all other CIM sub-systems. This book is one of the first significant Functional Specifications for CIM ever to be produced, and offers invaluable support to those working in the fields of CIM and factory automation.