Product Life Cycle System Approach In CIM 2002-01-2120

Manufacturing industries, to remain competitive in the global market must operate efficiently at the extended enterprise level. The competitive environment demands that these industries must deliver products to customers at the minimum possible costs, the best possible quality and minimum lead-time. This implies the notion of product life cycle system (PLCS) approach to design and manufacturing. The PLCS comprises CIM, ERP and SCM tools to accomplish a high level of integration among all the manufacturing activities. Conventional CIM involves the internal integration, within a single enterprise, of different manufacturing activities. The concept of lean production, agile manufacturing or global manufacturing extends the CIM scope and scale into Virtual Manufacturing (VM) where the integration is not only internal but also across enterprises. The present paper discusses the applications of the different Information Technology (IT) tools in manufacturing and a Web based information infrastructure for integration.