Before a product can be manufactured, it must be thoroughly designed. The design processes involves both creative and repetitive tasks to be carried out by the designer. Computers therefore are highly applicable to the repetitive tasks of design. In the early 1970s, computers were introduced to generate drawings and documentation of designs and proved to be highly cost effective. With the subsequent development in computer processing power and graphics, computers have become an essential part of design. Computer aided design can in fact be thought of as the cornerstone of CIM.
Computer Aided Manufacturing
At the same time as computer aided design was becoming a necessity for organizations, the advances in numerical control had developed and matured considerably. An important task in numerical control is part programming, where a part program is a set of sequential commands to the machine control unit in charge of tool and slide movements as well as other auxiliary functions [1]. For complex geometries this can involve quite lengthy and sophisticated calculations, and these are tasks for which computers are aptly suited.
Initially, the part programming was termed computer aided machining, and the associated technology was called computer-aided control (CNC). With the expanse of responsibilities of the computer outside of simple part programming, the term computer aided manufacturing came into wide spread use. With the increasing complexities of modern production, CAM refers to any non-design function of manufacturing that is computer aided. In fact, in the literal sense, CAM is as broad a scope as CIM except that the latter emphasizes integration.
Islands of Automation
In the 1970s, another concept that came into being was that of ‘flexible automation’. Flexible automation permits computer systems to vary their tasks based on software modifications, the simplest example being a robot. This was in contrast to standard Detroit type automation, which was largely inflexible [3]. To denote this new found flexibility and emphasize its higher mobility, islands of automation were coined as a phrase and became the catch cry of modern manufacturing firms throughout the 1970s. By the early 1980s however, it became very clear that the integration of islands into a coherent system was an insurmountable task, and highlighted the need for a holistic, integrated approach to manufacturing, for which CIM was an excellent candidate. It was realised that islands were not enough by themselves without a big picture of the entire manufacturing operation and the firm as a whole.
Holistic View to Manufacturing
During the 1970s, computers grew from the accounts and payroll offices and were being increasingly used in technical areas of manufacturing such as CAD, CAM and islands of automation. Companies that adopted these new technologies led developments as well as markets and maintained their competitive edge even through rough periods. However, when they attempted to minimize or eliminate certain undesirable characteristics of the new technologies, they found that the task was difficult if not impossible in most circumstances. Hence, it was necessary to invent new and integrated computer based automation to manufacturing, and even though CIM had been introduced during the 1970s, it was not until the 1980s that it was realized as a necessary part of modern manufacturing operations.
One of the reasons that CIM developed quickly was due to the demands of the marketplace for greater variety of product at better quality and lower prices. In the 1960s and 1970s, manufacturers could deal with such a problem by slashing their direct labor costs, by usually moving operations overseas to countries with lower wages [1]. But in the 1990s, the emphasis was shifted to other cost elements since direct labor represents only a small fraction of the total manufacturing costs of products [3]. Furthermore, throughout the 1980s, 1990s and today, the challenges of a global market have increased the necessity of CIM for manufacturing.
Advantages and Disadvantages
As noted by Kutay and Finger (1990) that once the world markets began to saturate in the 1960s and 1970s, mass production is no longer profitable since the size of the total target market could not be expanded further. The current characteristics of the world markets include higher competition, shorter product life cycles, greater product diversity, fragmented markets, variety and complexity, and smaller batch sizes to satisfy different customer profiles (Goldhar, 1992, cited in Nagalingnam and Lin, 1999). Thus companies are forced to try to capture different market segments by increasing product differentiation. In order for a company to be competitive, it has to be able to produce high variety products at low cost to the market at the shortest time possible and responsive to changes (Nagalingnam and Lin, 1999). This can be achieved by integrating advanced manufacturing technology with its operations hence the use of CIM.
The underlying concept of CIM is integrating management and production units into one unit. Information is shared between different functional units and decisions for each unit are made based on the information given. Thus CIM is not just about advanced manufacturing plants but rather CIM is achieved when the engineering based Computer Aided Tools (CAD, CAP, CAM, CAQ) are bound up with the various stages of the managerial Production Planning and Control (PPC) system to ensure the effective use of all relevant information sources (Scheer, 1994, cited in Milling, 1997).
Therefore the concept of CIM has different levels of implementation with all the levels are inter-dependent (Aardal, 1995). As an illustration, a new piece of equipment that is capable of producing items at a higher quality and faster is installed. This information needs to be passed on to all the other departments say the process department and the inventory control department. The process department needs to perhaps come up with a better manufacturing process to maintain the run-time of the tools used by the new equipment. At the same time, the person in charged of the inventory level has to alter his re-ordering level accordingly. The product designer is also required to be aware of the new capabilities of the new equipment so that he can utilise the equipment to its maximum capabilities. All these will result in reliable, high quality, fast, flexible, and cost efficient production processes (Milling, 1997).
Having seen that CIM has to be implemented at different levels of functional units within a company, now, we will look at the major advantages and disadvantages of implementing CIM.
One major benefit of implementing CIM is cost reduction thus increasing profits intake. CIM can assist in reducing machines downtime, reducing labour cost, reducing inventory cost, and minimising the waste (Harris, 1990; Kutay and Finger, 1990; Milling, 1997; Ngalingnam and Lin, 1999). Machines downtime can be reduced drastically by using more reliable machines and precise planning of the lines. It can also help to identify the root causes for machines downtime and solve the problems. This is possible by offering new alternatives in the production methods or simply better management and planning of the line itself. CIM system also enables a better control and reduces the level of raw materials and finished products inventories. This is possible due to shorter product lead times. In addition advanced manufacturing equipments usually involve some sorts of automation thus the number of operators required for the line can be reduced. This will reflect in major savings for the company, as labour cost tends to be the major cost.
Furthermore, CIM components especially those that are associated directly to the manufacturing processes will ensure higher quality in the end products. This benefit is a consequence from high precision advanced manufacturing equipments. Operators’ responsibilities are taken away significantly with automation, thus eliminating most of the manufacturing glitches due to human errors. In addition, the rate of production and production flexibility are enhanced greatly. This means that the lead time which is the time needed to produce a finished product from the first operation to dispatch is reduced (Walters and Schtaklef, 1990) and at the same time the same set of equipments can be used to produce different types of products. The present markets are characterised by high competitions, shorter product life cycles, greater product diversity, fragmented markets as well as varieties and complexities (Milling, 1997). As a result companies are required to be able to adjust quickly and meet the consumers’ demand to stay in today’s competitive markets.
Finally, CIM also gives a significant economic boost to the company. By using the information from all the CIM components correctly, a company can reduce its uncertainty about the variability in the market conditions through timely introduction of new products to the market (Kutay and Finger, 1990). As discussed earlier, CIM can enhance the product differentiation and response time. This will ensure the company a leading edge among its competitors since it is more flexible and also has faster response time. This in turn will enable the company to capture a big portion of a new market quickly.
If CIM can give so many significant benefits to a company, why then there are still many companies reluctant to implement CIM?
It has to be stressed once again that CIM is not just about using advanced manufacturing equipment. It is more a carefully planned system that integrates all the different functional units within a company into one system from management to manufacturing levels and shares all the information available. There is no one foolproof system that can be implemented in any company to guarantee successful implementation. Each company has to come up with its own system and integrate all the CIM components together. This process is always difficult and hard to manage.
Even though the cost of implementing CIM has gone down in the past few years, small and medium sizes companies still find it hard to adopt. Being able to produce high quality products in a short time does not guarantee success in the market. There are also the intangible attributes such as brands and customer services that will affect a product. Thus by investing heavily on CIM equipments especially the advanced manufacturing equipments will be deemed too risky and expensive.
In conclusion, CIM can bring in a lot of benefits to a company if it is used correctly. A company should plan carefully well ahead before it invests heavily on using CIM. If the CIM components are not integrated properly it will cause a company to perform well below its expectations.
Case Studies
There are many companies that tires to implement the ideology of CIM, however only a few firms are able to do so. In the following paragraphs there will be 3 examples of companies that were able to implement CIM or are in the process of implementing CIM.
Automobile Production at OPEL, Bochum (Germany)
OPEL has one of the most modern productive plants in the European countries situated at Bochum, Germany [12]. They are able to have an estimated output of about 1200 Opel Astra each day. This was a result of having decentralized automation based on open communication standard. Basically OPEL was able to utilize the concept of computer integrated manufacturing to have impressive progress in environmental production, workplace ergonomics and productivity. In this production plant a technology called PROFIBUS is being used to link up various aspects of manufacturing of the car to better coordinate the efforts of the automation.
Using real time monitoring systems the steel sheets that are used in the making of the body can be effectively pressed so that there will be less material wastage when new material comes in to be pressed again. Traditionally the changing of such pressing dies will take along time in a conventional plant. However with CIM such a complex task can be done in a relatively shorter amount of time and thus the plant will experience a reduction in downtime and an increase in flexibility. Such monitoring systems are also used in welding the various body parts together with greater accuracy than was possible. Such systems will consult the design database of the car before welding the car parts together, all of which is done very fast.
Opel uses the EPICS computer system (Europeam Production Information and Control System), which is a form of computer-integrated manufacturing. To ensure that the EPICS central computer system has all the necessary information, Opel has installed a standard communication network through the factory. As a result the central computer system is able to properly control the manufacturing processes within the factory. Thus ensuring that there will be an improvement in the coordination of material flow and the production lines within the factory.
After the shell of the car has been welded together from the steel sheets by the machines the bodies are then prepared to be spray-painted. The CIM software module will then automatically group the bodies to colour batches right before the final lacquer cabins. This will reduce the amount of time required to change the paint colour for different cars since all the bodies with similar colour are batched together first. Doing so will guarantee high paint quality and reduces the minimum need to clean the spray equipment with solvents when the paint colour is changed.
After the spray-painting phase is completed the car bodies are then stored into a high-bay stacking facility. The CIM software module controls the state-of-the-art stacking and routing system and automatically schedules dispatching for subsequent manufacture-to-order assembly. Once the other components of the car such as the door or engine modules are completed a conveyor system delivers them directly to the final assembly line. The CIM software module ensures that the right components arrive at the right time for the right body, thus ensuring that there is higher efficiency. An example of this is the installing of the various car seats into the car, the required seats are delivered on time to the assembly line just when they are needed because the CIM software module requested the seats per data link just-in0time from a supplier located not far away.
In the initial state of the production cycle, the CIM software module will send all data and component specifications for every single Astra to the newly developed Electronic Check-Out System, which conducts a final test of each Astra’s electrical and electronic systems at the end of the assembly line. After getting the approval from the CIM software module, the finished Astras leave the line and are moved to the delivery store, from where they are sent to the Opel dealers via goods train or truck.
Pioneer Magnetics
Pioneer Magnetics is a profitable power supply manufacturing that has successful utilise the concept of CIM [13]. However they have been implementing CIM for at least 10 years, showing that CIM is not an easy to use ideology, it takes time and careful planning in order to fully gain the advantages from CIM.
One major benefit of CIM is the reduction of cost; or rather the reduction in the amount of wasted work. Pioneer Magnetics approach was to look at the non-value-added activities of their business and see if they are worth the cost of doing. An example of this is in the factory, Pioneer resisted the use of the traditional work order system in MRP because they felt that the amount of non-value-added effort was not worth the benefit they would get from being able to track work at specific operations (Kaswen, 1990).
Another advantage of CIM is the reduction of cost from work-in-progress items. Pioneer realised that the ability to track their work-in-progress that were moving in and out of their stores did nothing to add control to their operations except added additional costs. Thus they flatten their bills of material to support the changes that they were making in their manufacturing process. As a result they reduced their manufacturing cycle time as well as WIP stores. The employees that were previously in the job of managing production and inventory of subassemblies are now reassigned to other areas, management of specific customer orders (cited from Kaswen, 1990).
Pioneer Magnetics is still in the process of fine-tuning their CIM implementation, showing that even after moderate success from initial CIM implementations it is still hard to keep up with it, thus proving that CIM requires careful planning and execution.
Shanghai No 2 Textile Machinery Company Ltd
STMC was founded in 1923 and is one of the large-scale key enterprises in China [14]. It has a large market share in the natural fibre spinning machines and synthetic fibre spinning machine commercial markets. As stated before due to fierce competition from rivals most companies are forced to find ways of being more cost effective. STMC is no exception and has decided to implement a CIM programme that they hope will make them more competitive from the benefits of CIM.
In the cited journal it shows that STMC will have to use modern computing tools to help make their business functional units much more efficient. They would have created an open integrated system, and have achieved the preliminary information integration of MIS, CAD/CAPP/CAM, FMS/DNC and GT, and CAQ. These are the computer-aided tools that are necessary in the implementation of CIM.
The eventual target of the STMC CIM programme is to set up a highly integrated, entirely optimized, fully flexible and the most efficient CIMS, with textile machinery as its products
Implementing CIM in Shenyang Blower Works
Shenyang Blower Works is a large manufacturing firm in china that specialises in the design and production of turbine type products [15]. They make their production plan according to orders from clients dues to its single or small batch production mode. For this SBW decided to adopt the CIM thinking and build a CIM system (CIMS) that will suit their needs to increase the company’s market competitiveness. During China’s transition period from a planned economy to a market economy model, the government set up high-technology research and development program in which CIMS featured strongly. SBW was one of the lucky companies that benefited from this programme in terms of getting funds and technology to develop their CIMS.
SBW was forced to become more competitive due to the fierce rivals that they face in the domestic and international markets. It was necessary for the company to adopt CIM to enhance the production capacity as a whole, improve their technical skills, shorten the period of delivery, improve the quality, reduce the cost, and increase their manufacturing flexibility [15]. SBW started their plans for CIM in the early 1990 and took almost 10 years to complete; the implementation would take an estimated 35,000,000 Renminbi.
The SBW CIM system consisted to 3 main functional subsystems; they are the production administration and decision information system (PADIS), engineering design CAD/CAPP/CAM (3C) system and the shop automation (SA) system with distributed quality control. These were the basic functional units that SBW considered essential in order to properly implement CIM. This particular case study shows how difficult it is for a medium sized company to develop CIM systems even with government help in terms of technology and financing. It shows that CIM is quite beneficial but costly as well to implement and must be planned properly first. Any deviation from this basic idea will surely result in failure for the plan and for the company.
Conclusion
The future will see that the use of Computer Integrated Manufacturing will become a matter of survival for many organizations around the world. The realization that the use of Information Technology is an integral part of the manufacturing process will continue to develop. This will not only change the organizational structure of many companies, but it will in itself become a significant competitive factor in itself.
The growth in CIM will not only be led by large corporations looking to streamline their operations. At many levels within the economy, CIM will become an important factor as organizations seek to exploit the best advantages of the link between information technology and organizational procedure. CIM will find its way down the chain of suppliers as inter company cooperation continues to grow and large firms continue outsourcing more of their work to smaller, more specialised and flexible firms. These firms will in turn need to ensure that they can operate within the CIM structure of the larger firms, hence the need to understand and fully utilize CIM.
The important factors motivating the introduction of CIM are the cost advantages and the flexibility it can yield. These cost advantages, generated by integration and streamlining of processes, are even more important in the current climate of increasing international competition. But firms need to be aware of the total picture and overall framework of CIM and ensure that it is fully implemented at all relevant levels in the organization in order to overcome the pitfalls that have befallen previous attempts.
Group Meetings and Discussions
References
[1] Scheer A.W. (1994) CIM Towards the Factory of the Future. Springer-Verlag Third, Revised and Enlarged Edition
[2] Vajpayee S. K. (1995) Principles of Computer Integrated Manufacturing. Prentice Hall
[3] Smith A. J. R. 436-365 Operations Analysis Lecture Notes, Second Semester 2004
[4] Aardal, M. (1995) A Model of CIM. Austin, Texas.
[5] Goldhar, J.D. (1992) Business strategies for the 21st century manufacturing firm-using CIM for competitive advantage. Proceedings of AUTOACT’92 Conference. USA. Cited in: Nagalingnam, S.V. and Lin, G.C.I. (1999) Latest developments in CIM. Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 15, 423-430.
[6] Harris, B.R. et al (1990) Employing a Computer Integrated Manufacturing Methodology for Improved Product Quality and Reduced Machine Downtime. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA.
[7] Kutay, A. (1989) The Economic Impact of Automation Technology. Technical report CMU-RI-TR-89-13, The Robotics Institue, Carnegie Mellon University.
[8] Kutay, A. and Finger, S. (1990) Assessment of the Economic Benefits of New Manufacturing Technologies. The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
[8] Milling, P.M. (1997) Computer Integrated Manufacturing in German Industry: Aspirations and Achievements. Mannheim, Germany.
[9] Nagalingnam, S.V. and Lin, G.C.I. (1999) Latest developments in CIM. Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 15, 423-430.
[10] Scheer, A. (1994) CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing), Towards the Factory of the Future. 3rd edition. Springer, Berlin. Cited in: Milling, P.M. (1997) Computer Integrated Manufacturing in German Industry: Aspirations and Achievements. Mannheim, Germany.
[11] Walters, H.M.J. and Schtaklef, R.G. (1990) Commercial Benefits of AI Applications in CIM: Value Analysis Approach. BICC Technologies Ltd, Hemel Hempstead, United Kingdom.
[12] Automobile Production at OPEL, Bochum (Gemany), 1998/07/15, from http://www.profibus.com/case/00552/
[13] Kaswen.D, Implementation of CIM Technologies, 1990 IEEE International Engineering Management Conference.
[14] , , . . Bradford: .Vol.10, Iss. 2; pg. 95
[15] Jingsong Xue, Haibin Yu, Rulin Mu, Kemin Lin. Implementing CIMS in Shenyang Blower Works. Bradford: .Vol.10, Iss. 2; pg. 89
