Systems based approaches to CIM: questions of method, competitiveness and profitability

Concerns the nature of systems engineering and its applicability to the design of manufacturing systems, and in particular CIM systems. The paper centres around the concept that there are two distinct systems-based approaches that can be used in designing manufacturing systems such as CIM. They are very different and lead to different types of manufacturing philosophy. These two approaches are briefly discussed, and it is demonstrated that the dominant paradigm, the narrower one, is out of step with the realities of manufacturing conditions, and that such systems engineering is not therefore of much assistance to the majority of European manufacturing organisations, the small to medium sized enterprises engaged in batch manufacturing activities