This book provides a justification and optimisation model that is complete enough to capture the important features required for a complex decision-making environment for computer integrated manufacturing investment analysis. The model provides facilities to quantify qualitative attributes.

This thesis reports on an innovative production-scheduling model for virtual computer-integrated manufacturing (VCIM) systems. It also describes a robust genetic algorithm for production scheduling in VCIM systems. The model, which is the most comprehensive of its kind to date, is not only capable of supporting collaborative shipment scheduling and handling multiple product orders simultaneously, but also helps cope with multiple objective functions under uncertainties. In turn, the genetic algorithm, characterised by an innovative algorithm structure, chromosome encoding, crossover and mutation, is capable of searching for optimal/suboptimal solutions to the complex optimisation problem in the VCIM production- scheduling model described. Lastly, the effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified in a comprehensive case study.

CIM - Mechanical Aspects: State of the Art Report contains different points of view about computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM). This report is organized into three parts: invited papers, analysis, and bibliography. The invited papers part examines various mechanical aspects of CIM. The analysis part assesses the major advances and provides a balanced analysis of the state of the art in CIM. Bibliography compiles the most important published material on the subject of mechanical aspects of CIM.

Enterprise integration and enterprise engineering has become a focal point of discussions during the past few years with active contribution of many disciplines... The evolution from the concept of CAD/CAM, through CIM to the Integrated Enterprise is based on the assumption that the integrated enterprise can (and should) be engineered just as any complex system can.