What is CIM

CIM is the integration of the total manufacturing enterprise through the use of integrated systems and
data communications coupled with new managerial philosophies that improve organizational and
personnel efficiency.”
Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) is the manufacturing approach of using computers to control
the entire production process.

Elements of CIM system

1. Planning
2. Information
3. Finance
4. Product Design
5. Purchase
6. Manufacturing
7. Automation work
8. Warehouse/ logistics
9. Marketing

Need of CIM
1. To increase productivity.
2. To reduce cost of production.
3. To improve product quality.
4. To reduced production time.
5. To improve work safety.

Advantage of CIM:
1. Improved customer service
2. Improved quality
3. Shorter time to market with new products
4. Shorter flow time
5. Shorter vendor lead time
6. Reduced inventory levels
7. Improved schedule performance
8. Greater flexibility and responsiveness
9. Improved competitiveness
10. Lower total cost
11. Shorter customer lead time
12. Increase in manufacturing productivity
13. Decrease in work-in process inventory

CIM physical system

Subsystems in computer integrated manufacturing

CAD (Computer-Aided Design) involves the use of computers to create design drawings and product
models.
CAE (Computer-Aided Engineering) is the broad usage of computer software to aid in engineering tasks.
CAM (Computer-Aided Manufacturing) is the use of computer software to control machine tools and
related machinery in the manufacturing of work pieces.
CAPP (Computer-Aided Process Planning) is the use of computer technology to aid in the process
planning of a part or product, in manufacturing.

Working Component of CIM

 Computer
 Software
 Robotics
 Controller (PLC) etc.
What is Automation……?
An automation is a method in which a process is performed by a machine
without the direct participation of a human worker. Automation is implemented using a program
of instructions combined with a control system that executes the instructions.

Two type of automation can be identified

1-Semi Automated system-is performing a portion of the work cycle under some
form of program control, and a human worker tends to the machine for the
remainder of the cycle, by loading and unloading it, or by performing some
Other task each cycle. e.g. Washing machine, Lathe machine, Lift machine etc.

2-Fully Automated system-

is distinguished from its semi-automated counterpart by its capacity to operate
for an extended period of time with no human attention. e.g. CNC lathe machine, Automatic washing
machine, Alexa, Driverless Metro etc.

Level of Automated manufacturing systems:

1. Fixed Automation.
2. Programmable Automation.
3. Flexible Automation.

Fixed automation is a system in which the sequence of processing (or assembly) operations
is fixed by the equipment configuration. Each operation in the sequence is usually simple,
involving perhaps a plain linear or rotational motion or an uncomplicated combination
of the two, such as feeding a rotating spindle.
It is the integration and coordination of many such operations in one piece of equipment that makes
the system complex.
The economic justification for fixed automation is found in products that are made
in very large quantities and at high production rates. The high initial cost of the equipment
can be spread over a very large number of units, thus minimizing the unit cost relative o altern
ative methods of production. Examples of fixed automation include machining transfer lines (engine
assembly) and automated assembly machines.

Typical features of fixed automation are

(1) High initial investment for custom engineered equipment.
(2) High production rates.
(3) Inflexibility of the equipment to accommodate product variety.
(4) The product design is constant for a long period of time.
Programmable automation.
In programmable automation, the production equipment is designed with the capability to change
the sequence of operations to accommodate different Product configurations. The operation
sequence is controlled by a program, which is a set of instructions coded so that they can be read and
interpreted by the system.
New programs can be prepared and entered into the equipment to produce new products.
Programmable automated systems are used in low- and medium-volume production. The parts or
products are typically made in batches. To produce each new batch of different item, The
system must be reprogrammed with the set of machine instructions that correspond to the new
item. The physical setup of the machine must also be changed:

Tools must be loaded, fixtures must be attached to the machine table, and any required machine settings
must be entered. This changeover takes time. Consequently, the typical cycle for a given batch includes
a period during which the setup and reprogramming take
place, followed by a period in which the parts are produced.
Examples of programmable automation include numerically controlled (NC) machine tools,
industrial robots, and programmable logic controllers.

Some of the features that characterize programmable automation include

(1) high investment in general-purpose equipment.
(2) lower production rates than fixed automation.
(3) flexibility to deal with variations and changes in product configuration.
(4) high suitability for batch production.
Flexible automation.
Flexible automation is an extension of programmable automation. A flexible automated system is capable of prod
ucing a variety of parts or products withvirtually no time lost for changeovers from one design to the next.
There is no lost production time while reprogramming the system and altering the physical setup
(tooling, fixtures, machine settings). Accordingly, the system can produce various mixes and schedules of
arts or products instead of requiring that they be made in batches.
What makes flexible automation possible is that the differences between parts processed by the system are n
ot significant, so the amount of changeover between designs is minimal.

Features of flexible automation include

(1) High investment for a custom-engineered system.
(2) Continuous production of variable mixtures of parts or products.
(3) Medium production rates.
(4) Flexibility to deal with product design variations.
Examples of flexible automation are flexible manufacturing systems that perform machining processes.

Compare of Level of Automation

 Computer Integrated Manufacturing (Subject Code: KME 051)
UNIT-I

1. Introduction to Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM): [1]

“Computer-integrated manufacturing is contagious.” -Joseph Harrington

"It has been called a strategy, a product, a direction, and a vision. It has been the subject of
thousands of books, articles, speeches and conferences. Manufacturers have invested billions of
dollars in it. Yet nobody can agree on what 'it' is. "
-" In Search of CIM," ASK horizons, fall 1989, p. 7
"The term computer-integrated manufacturing does not mean an automated factory."
-Joseph Harrington

The term CIM comprises three words-computers, integrated, and manufacturing. CIM is thus the
application of computers in manufacturing in an integrated way. All types of computers, from personal
computers (PCs) to mainframes, may be used in CIM.
An attempt to define CIM is analogous to a group of blind persons trying to describe an elephant by
touching it; each has a different description depending upon the body part touched. Nevertheless,
several definitions of CIM have been attempted. The one put forward by Shrensker (1990) for the
Computer and Automated Systems Association of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers
(CASA/SME) is perhaps the most appropriate. According to him, "CIM is the integration of the
total manufacturing enterprise through the use of integrated systems and data communications
coupled with new managerial philosophies that improve organizational and personnel
efficiency."

Manufacturing engineers are required to achieve the following objectives to be

competitive in a global context. [2]
 Reduction in inventory
 Lower the cost of the product
 Reduce waste
 Improve quality
 Increase flexibility in manufacturing to achieve immediate and rapid response to:
 Product changes
 Production changes
  Process change
 Equipment change
 Change of personnel

1.1 NATURE AND ROLE OF THE ELEMENTS OF CIM SYSTEM: [2]

Nine major elements of a CIM system are
 Planning
 Information
 Finance
 Product Design
 Purchase
 Manufacturing
 Automation work
 Warehouse/ logistics
 Marketing

 Marketing: The need for a product is identified by the marketing division. The specifications of
the product, the projection of manufacturing quantities and the strategy for marketing the product
are also decided by the marketing department. Marketing also works out the manufacturing costs to
assess the economic viability of the product.
 Product Design: The design department of the company establishes the initial database for
production of a proposed product. In a CIM system this is accomplished through activities such as
geometric modelling and computer aided design while considering the product requirements and
concepts generated by the creativity of the design engineer. Complex designs are usually carried out
by several teams working simultaneously, located often in different parts of the world. The design
process is constrained by the costs that will be incurred in actual production and by the capabilities
of the available production equipment and processes. The design process creates the database
required to manufacture the part.
 Planning: The planning department takes the database established by the design department and
enriches it with production data and information to produce a plan for the production of the
product. Planning involves several subsystems dealing with materials, facility, process, tools,
manpower, capacity, scheduling, outsourcing, assembly, inspection, logistics etc. In a CIM system,
 this planning process should be constrained by the production costs and by the production
equipment and process capability, in order to generate an optimized plan.
 Purchase: The purchase departments is responsible for placing the purchase orders and follow
up, ensure quality in the production process of the vendor, receive the items, arrange for inspection
and supply the items to the stores or arrange timely delivery depending on the production schedule
for eventual supply to manufacture and assembly.
 Manufacturing Engineering: Manufacturing Engineering is the activity of carrying out the
production of the product, involving further enrichment of the database with performance data and
information about the production equipment and processes. In CIM, this requires activities like
CNC programming, simulation and computer aided scheduling of the production activity.
 Factory Automation Hardware: Factory automation equipment further enriches the
database with equipment and process data, resident either in the operator or the equipment to carry
out the production process. In CIM system this consists manufacturing systems (FMS), Computer
controlled robots, material handling systems, computer controlled assembly systems, flexibly
automated inspection systems and so on.
 Warehousing: Warehousing is the function involving storage and retrieval of raw materials,
components, finished goods as well as shipment of items. In today’s complex outsourcing scenario
and the need for just-in-time supply of components and subsystems, logistics and supply chain
management assume great importance.
 Finance: Finance deals with the resources pertaining to money. Planning of investment, working
capital, and cash flow control, realization of receipts, accounting and allocation of funds are the
major tasks of the finance departments.
 Information Management: Information Management is perhaps one of the crucial tasks in
CIM. This involves master production scheduling, database management, communication,
manufacturing systems integration and management information systems.

Computers in manufacturing industries.

In CIM environments, manufacturing engineers interact very closely with designers. They need to
understand design, especially CAD, and the design process. CAD requires them to have insight into
the principles of computer technology and the associated terminologies such as bits and bytes, RAMs
and ROMs. The same is true for first-line supervisors or foremen who interact with operators,
management, and plant equipment. Maintenance staff need to work more as a team with a common
pool of expertise in areas as diverse as electronics, computers, hydraulics, pneumatics, and the usual
mechanical and electrical systems.
CAD:

CAM:
Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) is an application technology that uses computer software and
machinery to facilitate and automate manufacturing processes. CAM is the successor of computer-
aided engineering (CAE) and is often used in tandem with computer-aided design (CAD).

Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) is the use of software to control machine tools and related ones
in the manufacturing of work-pieces. Its primary purpose is to create a faster production process and
components and tooling with more precise dimensions and material consistency, which in some cases,
uses only the required amount of raw material (thus minimizing waste), while simultaneously reducing
energy consumption.
A CAM system is highly efficient because it can control the production house through different
automated techniques. The purpose of CAM is to ensure that the error rate is decreased, uniformity of
products is high and precision in the processes can be achieved. CAM operations is part of now almost
all industries. It is helpful in removing errors from the primary manufacturing processes and can also
keep track of further orders and material to be used. The automated plants have provided a hygiene
and clean environment to various processes which cannot be achieved fully by manual processes. For
example, the packaging of meat and related products is fully done by automated plants from the
slaughter of the animal to the final product. This has also reduced the labour cost and other operating
overheads. [1]
Automated Manufacturing system:
Historical development:
The first major innovation in machine control is the Numerical Control (NC), demonstrated at MIT
in 1952. Early Numerical Control Systems were all basically hardwired systems, since these were
built with discrete systems or with later first generation integrated chips. Early NC machines used
paper tape as an input medium. Every NC machine was fitted with a tape reader to read paper tape
and transfer the program to the memory of the machine tool block by block. Mainframe computers
were used to control a group of NC machines by mid-60’s. This arrangement was then called Direct
Numerical Control (DNC) as the computer bypassed the tape reader to transfer the program data to
the machine controller. By late 60’s mini computers were being commonly used to control NC
machines.
At this stage NC became truly soft wired with the facilities of mass program storage, offline editing
and software logic control and processing. This development is called Computer Numerical Control
(CNC).
 Since 70’s, numerical controllers are being designed around microprocessors, resulting in compact
CNC systems. A further development to this technology is the distributed numerical control (also
called DNC) in which processing of NC program is carried out in different computers operating at
different hierarchical levels - typically from mainframe host computers to plant computers to the
machine controller. Today the CNC systems are built around powerful 32 bit and 64 bit
microprocessors. PC based systems are also becoming increasingly popular.
Manufacturing engineers also started using computers for such tasks like inventory control, demand
forecasting, production planning and control etc. CNC technology was adapted in the development
of co-ordinate measuring machine’s (CMMs) which automated inspection. Robots were introduced
to automate several tasks like machine loading, materials handling, welding, painting and assembly.
All these developments led to the evolution of flexible manufacturing cells and flexible
manufacturing systems in late 70’s.
Evolution of Computer Aided Design (CAD), on the other hand was to cater to the geometric
modeling needs of automobile and aeronautical industries. The developments in computers, design
workstations, graphic cards, display devices and graphic input and output devices during the last ten
years have been phenomenal. This coupled with the development of operating system with graphic
user interfaces and powerful interactive (user friendly) software packages for modeling, drafting,
analysis and optimization provides the necessary tools to automate the design process.

Need of automation:
Basic elements of automation:
Levels of automation:
Automation Strategies:
Advantages & disadvantages of automation:
Future trends of Automation:

References:

1. Book: Computer Aided Manufacturing (2171903), Prepared by: Karan J Santoki,

Department of Mechanical Engineering Prepared by: Karan J Santoki Darshan Institute of
Engineering & Technology, Rajkot.
2. Book: Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CAD/CAM/CIM), third edition, by P
Radhakrishnan, S shubramanyan, V Raju.