Latest developments in CIM

Manufacturing enterprises play an important role in improving the economic environment of a country. The economic environment of many developed countr ies is under threat from emerging industrialised countries. Today, the capa bility of producing high quality products with shorter delivery times and t he ability to produce according to the diverse customer requirements have b ecome the characteristics required of order-qualifiers for manufacturing in dustries. Hence, application of intelligent manufacturing systems and compu ter integrated manufacturing (CIM) has become the necessity to overcome the above issues while retaining the employment level and revenue of a country in today's highly competitive global market. With the developments taking place in CIM and its related technologies, the application of CIM in manufa cturing enterprises has become a reality. This paper focuses on latest rese arch developments in CIM and a new CIM wheel proposed to satisfy the emergi ng technological application of virtual enterprises. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scie nce Ltd. All rights reserved.