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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The most critical problem faced by too many U.S. industrial
executives today is the steady decline in their companies'
competitiveness at home and abroad, and the resultant loss in market
share. A major reason for the decline has been the gradual emergence
of a technology gap in manufacturing. It has not been a single
identifiable event, but a slow erosion of the technological foundation
of manufacturing. The keys to regaining competitiveness in most U.S.
manufacturing industries are quality, productivity, and responsiveness
in bringing new products to the marketplace. A primary technology for
attaining these attributes, across industries, is computer-integrated
manufac tur ing.
Manufacturing includes all activities from the perception of a
need for a product, through the conception, design, and development of
the product, production, marketing, and support of the product in
use . Every action involved in these activit ies uses data, whether
textual, graphic, or numeric. The computer, today 's prime tool for
manipulating and using data, offers the very real possibility of
integrating the now often fragmented operations of manufacturing into
a single, smoothly operating system. This approach is generally
termed computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM).
Computer-integrated manufacturing can be employed at many levels
short of total integration, which in fact has not yet been achieved
anywhere. Manufacturers who are leaders in CIM typically have
concentrated their efforts in two areas:
· computer-aided design (CAD), which applies the computer to the
creation, modification, and evaluation of product design, and
· computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), which applies the computer
to the planning, control, and operation of a production facility.
Manufacturers that concentrated on CAD and CAM in the early stages
of the technology's application, however, generally paid little
attention to the interface between the two. In most companies, the
activities were in different departments with heterogeneous computers
and languages, inconsistent objectives, and little or no consideration
given to the transfer of information between the two in either
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direction. Such programs, in consequence, have often been ['islands of
excellence" separated by poor communication, diverse goals, and
adversarial relationships.
Recognizing that the CAD/CAM interface is a key barrier to
computer-integrated manufacturing, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) asked the National Research Council (NRC) to
investigate the current status of industrial eforts to improve the
interface. The NRC, through its Manufacturing Studies Board, formed
the Committee on the CAD/CAM Interface to respond to the request.
NASA has two major objectives that the Committee's recommendations
address. These are:
1. To launch a Manned Space Station by 1992 with a budget of
$8 billion.
2. To be "a leader in the development and application of advanced
technology and management practices which contribute to significant
increase in Agency and National productivity" (NASA Administrator Is
goal #8~. Objective 4 under this goal is to "-...conduct joint
contractor-NASA pilot productivity incentive programs on a major
development project and for a major support service activity.''
Objective 5 is to "establish a capability for agencywide sharing of
CAD/CAM techniques by FY 1984."
Specifically, NASA asked that the Committee use case studies as a
basis for recommendations designed to:
o clarify the data management requirements in computer-integrated
manufacturing, and
· correct deficiencies in current efforts that address the
integration between the engineering design of a product and its
production.
In responding to the charge, the Committee visited five companies
that have been leaders in implementing computer-integrated
manufacturing and studied three major government programs in this
field. It became clear that the problem is much broader than the
CAD/CAM interface. Information is used in manufacturing from the
conception of a product to its delivery and use in the field. Leaders
in U.S. manufacturing have already realized substantial benefits from
the computer, but the potential benefits of computer integration may
be much greater. One of the best documented examples of the benefits
of integrating information is Boeing's experience with its most recent
airplane programs, the 757 and 767. The company realized significant
improvements in design and production, reduction of part shortages,
adherence to schedules, and budgetary performance in comparison with
earlier airplane programs.
Other examples of excellence in design, reduced work in process,
lead-time reduction, and improved productivity and quality were
observed in all the firms interviewed by the Committee. In one, for
example, the adoption of CIM led to a reduction in the time from
release of the design to assembly from 18 weeks to 4 weeks, and
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inventory was reduced from three months' supply to one month. These
improvements were due in large part to integrated data handling, often
manual, from start to finish of the manufacturing process. The values
shown below are representative of the intermediate benefits of 10- to
20-year efforts. Further benefits are expected to accrue as full
integration is approached.
Benefits Achieved
Reduction in engineering design cost
' 15-30%
Reduction in overall lead time 30-60%
Increased product quality as measured 2-5 times previous
by yield of acceptable product level
Increased capability of engineers as
measured by extent and depth of analysis
in same or less time than previously
3-35 times
Increased productivity of production 40-70%
operations (complete assemblies)
Increased productivity (operating time) 2-3 times
of capital equipment
Reduction of work in process 30-60:
Reduction of personnel costs 5-20%
The challenge of manufacturing management is broadening from the
historic interest in handling and processing materials to include the
management of information that controls those processes. This major
substantive shift is the result of marketplace pressures, which demand
greater manufacturing flexibility, improved quality and performance,
and faster delivery. Factory operations have always been driven by
marketplace needs. Unlike the past, however, the market pressures
that necessitate computer-integrated manufacturing are not directly
related to the technology. The computer integration of factory data
allows higher quality, shorter cycle time between design and
production, efficient production of small batches, and faster
incorporation of design changes--which in turn respond to the market
demand for flexibility, quality, and delivery.
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RECOMMENDATIONS
The recommendations that follow are based on the need to support
progress in factory data management techniques and increase the use of
CIM throughout the U.S. manufacturing base. One objective of these
recommendations is to ensure access to the knowledge already gained by
those manufacturers that have as much as 20 years of experience with
the concept. A second and more significant objective arises from the
recognition that implementation of CIM exceeds the capabilities of
most individual manufacturing organizations. This fact implies the
need to develop and disseminate knowledge of factory data management
issues by more collective action than has occurred to date.
1. The Committee recommends that the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration adopt a strategy of computer-integrated
manufacturing for its Manned Space Station program.
The use of CIM for the Manned Space Station is essential to
meeting the program's administrative goals--a manned station in space
in 1992 at a total cost of $8 billion--because manual coordination of
the data to support the design and manufacturing of systems components
would be time consuming and prone to error. Adoption of a clear CIM
strategy by NASA would avoid the evolution of incompatible approaches
as each manufacturer or supplier prepares to respond to NASA's space
station requirements. Unless the efforts of the hundreds of companies
supporting the space station program are coordinated by means of CIM,
design engineering and production errors are likely to proliferate.
Finding and correcting these errors would entail substantially higher
costs, longer development time, and perhaps reduced operational
capability.
A secondary reason for the use of CIM in the Manned Space Station
program is to further the development and use of the technology. NASA
has a legitimate role in sponsoring the development and diffusion of
technology, such as CIM, that is important to the country but that
initially, at least, is beyond the resources of a single company to
deliver. The Apollo and Space Shuttle programs provide clear
precedents for NASA-funded creation and diffusion of new technologies.
Adoption of a strategy of computer-integrated manufacturing would
require implementation of CIM throughout the pertinent operations of
both NASA and its contractors. Such an effort would involve many
combinations of computer equipment from various vendors. To permit
communication among these heterogeneous systems, NASA would have to
adopt standards for data definition, data formats, languages, and
protocols. The communications problem would be difficult but, in the
Committee's opinion, surmountable. In solving it, NASA could draw on
four existing federal efforts: the Integrated Program for Aerospace
Vehicle Design (IPAD), funded by NASA and the Navy; the Air Force's
Integrated Computer Aided Manufacturing (ICAM) program; the Product
Definition Data Interface (PDDI) effort under ICAM; and the National
Bureau of Standards' Automated Manufacturing Research Facility (AMRF).
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2. The Committee recommends that companies form consortia to
.
pursue research and other projects in CIM not readily undertaken by
individual companies.
The technological accomplishments required to achieve CIM entail
enormous expense, creativity, planning efforts, and amounts of time.
Only the largest U.S. manufacturers, or those responding to a specific
marketplace requirement for CIM' can be expected to apply the needed
resources to their CIM efforts. Yet the Committee believes that a
majority of U.S. manufacturers will not be able to remain competitive
in the quality, timeliness of delivery, and cost of their products
unless they use CIM. Therefore, cooperative efforts among companies
will enable a broader base of U.S. industry to achieve CIM.
To speed the rate of application of existing knowledge about CIM'
and to identify priorities for research, groupings of companies should
organize to pool their effor ts . Individual company appl icat ions o f
CIM technology will vary in hardware, software ~ and order of implemen-
tation. However, many issues in data communication,- data bases, and
process modeling surpass the abilities of single companies and could
best be resolved cooperatively. The Department of Commerce's R&D
Limited Partnership program may offer a useful mechanism for forming
consort Ha .
3. The Committee recommends that the Computer and Automated
Systems Association compile knowledge of CIM technology, drawing on
both industrial and governmental sources, and make it available to
industry, to universities, and to governmental agencies.
All of the companies involved in the Committee ' s site visits had
spent a good deal of time planning and organizing for computer-
integrated manufacturing. Companies that are not as far as these
leaders in their thinking about CIM should not have to develop their
plans from scratch. If existing information were available in an
organized form from a central place, diffusion of CIM technology would
accelerate. The intent of this recommendation is that existing
information on CITE be collected, organized, and disseminated to
current and prospective users. New information would be added as it
became available.
The Computer and Automated Systems Association (CASA) of the
Society of Manufacturing Engineers has the constituency, mandate, and
authority to carry out this recommendation. CASA's membership
comprises engineers with an interest in and experience in computer-
integrated manufacturing.
4. The Committee recommends that the federal government continue
to undertake research to resolve fundamental technical issues related
to computer-integrated manufacturing.
Resolution of the technical issues in Chapter 3 requires more
research than a single company can undertake on its own. Data
communication in a heterogeneous system, validation and consistency of
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data, representation of textual and geometrical data, expert systems,
and analytical models of manufacturing processes are all risky areas
of research' requiring multiyear, cooperative efforts. Solutions to
these problems are needed to advance work in computer-integrated
manufacturing.
We believe that the national research agenda should be revised to
incorporate these needs and that the efforts initiated should be given
long-term support. The Federal Coordinating Council for Science,
Engineering, and Technology, chaired by the President's Science
Adviser, might be the appropriate group to manage federally funded
research related to CIM. Federal science policy-makers need suffi-
cient understanding of the generic research issues outlined in this
report so that a small percentage of the federal research budget can
be effectively directed toward building the cumulative knowledge base
necessary for progress on these issues.
5. The Committee recommends that federal agencies that purchase
manufactured goods accept digital data sets compatible with the
Initial Graphics Exchange Specification, rather than requiring
conventional drawings, as a deliverable item under contracts.
This recommendation applies to all federal agencies that procure
manufactured goods with high tolerance specifications and require the
ability to replicate these productse These agencies include NASA, the
Departments of Defense and Energy, and others.
Some federal contractors already handle graphical material inter-
nally in the form of digital data and create conventional drawings
solely to satisfy federal contracts. Besides the inefficiency of this
procedure ~ errors that creep into drawings produced only to satisfy
contracts may not be found until another contractor tries to use the
drawings. Acceptance of digital data by the government would obviate
this problem and, more importantly, would promote the creation of
computer links between organizations as well as within them.
The requirement for data in a form compatible with the Initial
Graphics Exchange Specification is recommended because it is the only
communications protocol as yet widely accepted in industry. It
establishes an initial basis for direct digital exchange of graphical
data and has been adopted as a standard by the American National
Standards Institute.
6. The Committee recommends that manufacturing companies
considering investment in product design or manufacturing process
technology consider computer-integrated manufacturing.
Adoption of CIM technology is essential to the maintenance or
recovery of competitiveness by U.S. manufacturers in domestic and
world markets. Companies regularly find themselves losing ground to
competitors who are introducing CIM. Nevertheless, far too few
companies in this country are working seriously to adapt the concept
to their operations.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
manned space
