The quest for building systems that can function automatically has attracted a lot of attention over the centuries and created continuous research activities. As users of these systems we have never been satisfied, and demand more from the artifacts that are designed and manufactured. The current trend is to build autonomous systems that can adapt to changes in their environment. While there is a lot to be done before we reach this point, it is not possible to separate manufacturing systems from this trend. The desire to achieve fully automated manufacturing systems is here to stay....

Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly larger role in production and manufacturing engineering. Much of this growth is the result of special-purpose computer controlled machines that are dominating modem manufacturing operations, such as computer numerically controlled machines and robots, and production activities, such as materials handling and process planning. Since a great deal of production and manufacturing engineering knowledge can be put in the form of rules, expert systems have emerged as a promising practical tool of AI in solving manufacturing and production...

I must confess that I stumbled upon the object-oriented (00) world view during my explorations into the world of artificial intelligence (AI) in search of a new solution to the problem of building computer-integrated manufacturing systems (CIM). In 00 computing, I found the constructs to model the manufacturing enterprise in terms of information, a resource that is common to all activities in an organization. It offered a level of modularity, and the coupling/binding neces- sary for fostering integration without placing undue restrictions on what the individual applications can do. The...