Summary

Computer-aided manufacturing and design, flexible manufacturing, computer-aided production management, and computer-integrated manufacturing are widely used in manufacturing enterprise. Within these systems, information technology has been applied to capture, organize, manage and display data. In the future, information technology must also become the catalyst for interaction among workers in these fields, in a complete enterprise from concept to product. This requires the development of an integrated information-system infrastructure. The papers in this volume are reports on the theory, and current and future applications of information technology. The collection presents valuable milestones towards the progress of information technology in advanced manufacturing systems.