In recent years there has been a tremendous upsurge of interest in manufac turing systems design and analysis. Large industrial companies have realized that their manufacturing facilities can be a source of tremendous opportunity if managed well or a huge corporate liability if managed poorly. In particular industrial managers have realized the potential of well designed and installed production planning and control systems. Manufacturing, in an environment of short product life cycles and increasing product diversity, looks to tech niques such as manufacturing resource planning, Just In Time...