From Systems That Interface to Systems That Integrate CAD/CAM for Computer Integrated Product Realization

Industry is at the beginning of a second generation of computer aided design and manufacturing systems for computer aided product realization. The first generation linked "islands of automation" through systems that built interfaces to these islands scattered throughout the corporation. Additional efforts strove to unite the enterprise at a higher level by providing a common repository of information so that product design would "data-drive" manufacturing.