Computer-aided production management

The paper suggests that business schools have not taken enough notice of developments in production management which may have a major impact on business management. The paper reviews work being done in the field of computer-aided production, both in general and in the Department of Production Management & Manufacturing Technology at the University of Strathclyde in particular. The work deals with computer-aided manufacture, layout planning and materials handling, production control, microcomputers, process control and hierarchical distributed computing. Three trends are indentified: (i) The need, technical feasibility and economic viability of providing computing power within the various functional activities, e.g. design, production control, production engineering etc., of the company. (ii) The need to interface computer systems across functional boundaries in the organisation. (iii) The need to interface computer systems at different levels within the organisation. These developments are leading towards a new concept the linked engineering business system ¿¿ which may radically change the way manufacturing businesses are managed in the future.