Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Manufacturing in the Digital Age: Exploiting Information Technologies for Product Realization

  • Published:
Information Systems Frontiers Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Information technology (IT) is both the key enabler for future manufacturing enterprises and a transformer of organizations and markets. By reducing barriers to collaboration, compressing lead time, eliminating physical movement, and enriching decision-making, IT helps manufacturers achieve their goal of meeting customer needs better, quicker, and cheaper. By providing global reach and easy connectivity, information technology has fostered cooperation while increasing market competition, and heightened customer expectations. Advances in computer and communication technologies combined with rapid changes in organizations have created new opportunities for exploiting information technologies in the entire product realization process. This paper explores these opportunities, and identifies promising directions for both basic and applied research. We first review important trends in organizations, markets, and information technologies—from increasing customer involvement and opportunistic organizational alliances to global reach and connectivity, enterprise integration, and virtualization. Adopting a process viewpoint of the product realization cycle, we translate these trends into high-impact IT applications in design and operations that offer rich potential for applied research and development. Underlying these applications are four broad classes of intelligent information processes—intelligent search, diagnosis and prognosis, collaboration, coordination, and negotiation, and understanding and learning. And, software agents provide an ideal platform to implement these processes. We briefly review developments in these basic research fields, and identify necessary scientific advances that are most important from the manufacturing perspective. Our goal is to synthesize streams of thought from many related disciplines in engineering, science, and management, and develop a framework for examining how information technologies can facilitate and influence manufacturing.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aldakhilallah KA, Ramesh R. An Integrated Framework for Automated Process Planning: Design and Analysis. International Journal of Production Research 1998;36(4):939–956.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Atherton RW. Moving Java to the Factory. IEEE Spectrum 1998;18–23.

  • Balakrishnan A, Kalakota R, Ow PS, Whinston AB. Designing Collaborative Systems to Support Reactive Problem-Solving in Manufacturing. in Integration: Information and Collaboration Models. S. Y. Nof (ed.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1994;105–133.

  • Balakrishnan A, Semmelbauer T. Circuit Diagnosis Support System for Electronics Assembly Operations. to appear in Decision Support Systems. 1999.

  • Baldwin RW, Chang CV. Locking the E-Safe. IEEE Spectrum 1997;14(2):40–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bartlett CA, Ghoshal S. The Individualized Corporation: A New Doctrine for Management. New York: Harper Business Publishers, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernes-Lee T. WWW: Past, Present, and Future. IEEE Computer 1996;29(10):69–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berry NM, Kumara SRT. REAGERE: A Reaction Based Architecture for Integration and Control Plug and Play Software for Agile Manufacturing. Proceedings of the SPIE 1996;202–218.

  • Bobrow DJ. Qualitative Reasoning about Physical Systems. MA: MIT Press, Cambridge, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  • Booch G, Rumbaugh J, Jacobson I. The Unified Modeling Language User Guide. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw M. (ed.), Software Agents. Menlo Park, CA: AAAI Press/ MIT Press, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown DC, Chandrasekaran B. Design Problem Solving. CA: Morgan Kauffman Publishers, 1989.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bryson S. Virtual Reality in Scientific Visualization. Communications of the ACM 1996;39(5):62–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bukkapatnam S, Lakhtakia A, Kumara S. Analysis of Sensor Signals shows Turning on a Lathe is Chaotic. Physics Reviews E 1995;52(3):2375–2387.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caglayan A, Harrison C. Agent Source Book. New York: Wiley Computer Publishing, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cerutti D, Pierson (eds.) D. Distributed Computing Environments. New York: McGraw Hill, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandler AP. Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the American Industrial Enterprise. Boston: M.I.T. Press; 1962.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chang TC, Wysk R. An Introduction to Computer Aided Process Planning Systems. NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark KB, Fujimoto T. Product Development Performance: Strategy, Organization, and Management in the World Auto Industry. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cusumano MA, Selby RW. Microsoft Secrets: How the World's Most Powerful Software Company Creates Technology, Shapes Markets, and Manages People. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daubechies I. Ten Lectures on Wavelets. CBMS: SIAM publishers, 1992.

  • Deming WE. Out of the Crisis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Center for Advanced Engineering, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dertouzos ML, Lester RK, Solow RM. Made in America: Regaining the Productive Edge. MIT Commission on Industrial Productivity, New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeSanctis G, Gallupe RB. A Foundation for the Study of Group Decision Support Systems. Management Science 1987;33(5):589–609.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans E, Rogers D. Using Java Applets and CORBA for Multi-User Distributed Applications. IEEE Internet Computing 1997;1(3):43–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fine CH. Clockspeed: Winning Industry Control in the Age of Temporary Advantage. Perseus Books, 1998.

  • Finin T, Labrou Y, Mayfield J. KQML as an Agent Communication Language. in Software Agents. M. Bradshaw (ed.)., Menlo Park, CA: AAAI Press/MIT Press, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Genesereth MR, Ketchpel SP. Software Agents. Communications of the ACM 1994;37(7):48–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilder G. Out of the Conference: Heat, Light and Limits. Gilder Technology Report 1997;II(10):.

  • Ghosh AK. E-Commerce Security. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg D. Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization and Machine Learning. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graham IS. HTML 4.0 Sourcebook. New York: John-Wiley & Sons, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamel G, Prahalad CK. Competing for the Future. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammer M, Champy J. Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hesselbein F, Goldsmith M, Beckhard (eds.) R. The Organization of the Future. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hauser JR, Clausing D. The House of Quality. Harvard Business Review 1988;63–73.

  • Haykin S. Neural Networks: A Comprehensive Foundation. New York: Macmillan, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holland J. Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems. The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1975.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kamarthi S, Kumara S, Cohen P. Application of Wavelets to AE Signal Processing in Metal Cutting. ASME Transactions in Manufacturing Science and Engineering. 1999 (in press).

  • Kanal L, Kumar (eds.) V. Search in Artificial Intelligence. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kannappan SM, Marskek KM. An Approach to Parametric Machine Design and Negotiation in Concurrent Engineering. in Concurrent Engineering: Automation, Tools, and Techniques. A. Kusiak (ed.), John Wiley & Sons, 509–534, 1993.

  • Kao C, Kumara S, Kasturi R. Extraction of 3-dimensional Manufacturing Features Using Super Relation Graph Method. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 1995;17(12):1228–1233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keen PGW. Shaping the Future. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koza J. Genetic Programming: On the Programming of Computers by Means of Natural selection. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koza J. Genetic Programming II: Automatic Discovery of Reusable Programs. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krishnan V, Eppinger SD, Whitney DE. A Model-Based Framework to Overlap Product Development Activities. Management Science 1997;43(4):437–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kumara S, Kamarthi S. Function-to-Structure Transformation in Conceptual Design: An Associative Memory Based Paradigm. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing 1991;2:281–292.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee IBH, Lim BS, Nee AYC. Knowledge Based Process Planning System for the Manufacture of Progressive Dies. International Journal of Production Research 1991;31(2):251–278.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee HL, Billington C, Carter B. Hewlett-Packard Gains Control of Inventory and Service Through Design for Localization. Interfaces 1993;23:1–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lenat DB. Steps to sharing knowledge. in Toward Very Large Knowledge Bases. N.J.I. Mars (ed.), IOS Press, 1995.

  • Li JK, Huang ZH, Shen H. Computer-Aided Process Planning Techniques for Complicated Aircraft Structural Parts. Annals of CIRP 1994;43(1):417–420.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lim L, Benbasat I. A Theoretical Perspective of Negotiation Support Systems. Journal of Management Information Systems 1992;9(3):27–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lohse GL, Biolsi K, Walker N, Rueter HH. A Classification of 48 Balakrishnan, Kumara and Sundaresan Visual Representations. Communications of the ACM 1994;37(12):36–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lozinsky S. Enterprise-wide Software Solutions. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maes P. Agents that Reduce Work and Information Overload. Communications of the ACM 1994;37(7):31–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mallat S. A Theory of Multiresolution Signal Decomposition: The Wavelet Representation. IEEE Trans. Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 1989;11(7):674–693.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malone TW. Modeling Coordination in Organizations and Markets. Management Science 1987;33:1317–1332.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin J. Information Engineering: Books I, II, and III. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin R. MES: The Key to Agile Manufacturing. APICS February, 4–6, 1997.

  • McDonald PJ, Smith GD, Kumara S, Joshi S. A Cascading Auction Protocol as a Framework for Integrating Process Planning and Heterarchical Shop Floor Control. International Journal of CIM 1999 (in press).

  • McKie-Mason J, Varian H. Pricing the Internet. in: Public Access to the Internet. Kahin B, Keller J (eds.), Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Minsky M. The Society of Mind. NewYork: Simon & Schuster, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  • Minton S. Machine Learning Methods for Planning. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kauffman, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  • Monostori L. A Step Towards Intelligent Manufacturing: Modelling and Monitoring of Manufacturing Processes through Artificial Neural Networks. Annals of the CIRP 1993;45(2):485–488.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Monostori L, Markus A, Van Brussel H, Westkamper E. Machine Learning Approaches to Manufacturing. Annals of the International Institution for Production Engineering Research 1996;45(2):685–712.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mougayar W. Opening Digital Markets. New York: McGraw Hill, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nevins JL, Whitney DE. (eds.). Concurrent Design of Products and Processes. McGraw Hill, 1989.

  • Nicol JR, Gutfreund YS, Paschetto J, Rush KS, Martin C. How the Internet Helps Build Collaborative Multimedia Applications. Communications of the ACM 1999;42(1):79–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nilsson N. The Mathematical Foundations of Learning Machines. San Francisco: Morgan Kauffman, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nilsson N. Artificial Intelligence: A New Synthesis. San Francisco: Morgan-Kauffman, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nunamaker JF Jr., Dennis AR, Valacich JS, Vogel DR, George JF. Electronic Meeting Systems to Support Group Work. Communications of the ACM 1991;34(7):40–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O'Hare GMP, Jennings NR. Foundations of Distributed Artificial Intelligence. Wiley Inter-Science, 1994.

  • Orfali R, Harkey D. Client/Server Programming with Java and CORBA. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oviatt S. Ten Myths of Multi-modal Interaction. Communications of he ACM 1999 (in press).

  • Parker MM. Strategic Transformation and Information Technology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parunak HVD, Applications of Distributed Artificial Intelligence in Industry. Foundations of Distributed Artificial Intelligence O'Hare GMP, and Jennings NR (eds.),Wiley Inter-Science, 1994.

  • Pine BJ. Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raiffa H. The Art and Science of Negotiation. Boston: Harvard University Press, 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rangwala S, Dornfeld D. Sensor Integration using Neural Networks for Intelligent Tool Condition Monitoring. ASME Journal of Engineering for Industry 1990;112:219–228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rao HR, Thirumurthy M, Ramesh R. A Dynamic Learning Model for On-Line Quality Control Using the Taguchi Approach. Applied Artificial Intelligence 1992;6(4):457–482.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reed DA, Giles RC, Atlett CE. Distributed Data and Immersive Collaboration. Communications of the ACM 1997;40(11):39–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson WN, Volkov S. Supporting Negotiation Life Cycle. GSU Working Paper, CIS-96-05, 1996.

  • Rosenschein JS, Zlotkin G. Rules of Encounter. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santochi M, Dini G. Use of Neural Networks in Automated Selection of Technological Parameters of Cutting Tools. Computer Integrated Manufacturing Systems 1996;9(3)

  • Satapathy G, Kumara SRT. The Object Oriented Design based Agent Modeling. submitted to PAAM'99 1999.

  • Senge PM. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday Publishers, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharma R, Pavlovic V, Huang TS. Toward Multi-Modal Human Computer Interface.Proceedings of the IEEE 1998;86(5):853–869.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sheppard JW, Simpson WR. Research Perspectives and Case Studies in System Test and Diagnosis. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Shoham Y. Agent Oriented Programming. Artificial Intelligence 1993;60(1):51–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shoham Y. An Overview of Agent Oriented Programming. in: Software Agents. M. Bradshaw (ed.), Menlo Park, CA: AAAI Press/MIT Press, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shortliffe EH. Computer Based Medical Consulations: New York: MYCIN. Elsevier, 1976.

  • Smith RG. The Contract Net Protocol: High-level Communication and Control in a Distributed Problem Solver. IEEE Transactions on Computers 1980;29(12):1104–1113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith RG, Davis R. Negotiation as a Metaphor for Distributed Problem Solving. Artificial Intelligence 1983;20:63–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snow CC, Mathews JA, Miles RE. The Concept of the Corporation in the Twenty-first Century. Working Paper, Carnegie Bosch Institute, 1999.

  • Stalk G, Hout TM. Competing Against Time: How Time-based Competition is Reshaping Global Markets. New York: Free Press, 1990.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Storey VC, Chiang RHL, Dey D, Goldstein RC, Sundaresan S. Database Design with Common Sense Business Reasoning and Learning. ACM Transactions on Database Systems 1997;22(4):471–512.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sycara K. Resolving Goal Conflicts via Negotiation. Proceedings of the AAAI-88 1988;245–250.

  • Teti R, Kumara S. A Review of Computational Methods in Manufacturing. Annals of the International Institution for Production Engineering Research, 1997;2:629–652.

    Google Scholar 

  • Treese GW, Stewart LC. Designing Systems for Internet Commerce. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valkenaers P, Bonville F, Van Brussel H, Wyns J. Results of Holonic System Benchmark at KU Leuven. Fourth Intl. Conference on Computer Integrated Manufacturing and Automation Troy, NY, 1994.

  • Wellman M. A Computational Market Model for Distributed Configuration Design. AI EDAM 1995.

  • Wellman M. Market Oriented Programming: Some Early Lessons. in: Market-Based Control-A Paradigm for Distributed Resource Allocation. Clearwater S (ed.), Singapore: World Scientific, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wigand R, Picot A, Reichwald R. Information, Organization and Management. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Womack JP, Jones DT, Roos D. The Machine that Changed the World. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wooldridge MJ, Jennings NR. Agent Theories, Architectures and Languages: A Survey. in: Intelligent Agents: ECAI-94 Workshop on Agent Thoeries, Architectures, and Languages.Wooldridge MJ, and Jennings NR (eds.), Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1994;1–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yoshikawa H. Design Theory for CAD/CAM Integration. Annals of CIRP 1994;43(1):173–178.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management Science & Information Systems, Smeal College of Business Adminstration, Penn State University, University Park, PA, 16802

    Anantaram Balakrishnan

  2. Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, & Department of Computer Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Penn State University, University Park, PA, 16802

    Soundar R. T. Kumara

  3. Department of Management Science & Information Systems, Smeal College of Business Adminstration, Penn State University, University Park, PA, 16802

    Shankar Sundaresan

Authors
  1. Anantaram Balakrishnan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Soundar R. T. Kumara
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Shankar Sundaresan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Balakrishnan, A., Kumara, S.R.T. & Sundaresan, S. Manufacturing in the Digital Age: Exploiting Information Technologies for Product Realization. Information Systems Frontiers 1, 25–50 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010012712144

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010012712144

Search

Navigation