1 Modern Manufacturing Systems: An Information Technology Perspective -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Basic engineering CIM functions -- 3 Information technology enhances the competitive advantage -- 4 An intra-organizational CIM model -- 5 An inter-organizational CIM model -- 6 Artificial intelligence in CIM systems -- 7 Economic evaluation of automated manufacturing -- 8 Conclusions -- References -- 2 Decision Support Systems in Manufacturing Systems Managemen -- 1 Introduction -- 2 DSS in general -- 3 Problem domains -- 4 Problem solving strategy -- 5 DSS for operation scheduling and dispatching -- 6 DSS for process planning -- 7 Conclusions -- References -- 3 AI in Manufacturing: Application to FM S Simulation, Scheduling and Control -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Important issues in application of AI manufacturing -- 3 Knowledge based simulation, evaluation, scheduling, quality control and real-time control of manufacturing systems -- 4 Conclusions -- References -- 4 Modelling and Analyzing Processes in Production and Administration -- 1 Motivation -- 2 ProMAX requirements -- 3 ProMAX architecture and environment -- 4 Impacts on software engineering -- 5 Applications in administration -- 6 Applications in production -- 7 Conclusions -- References -- 5 Quality Management in CIM -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Quality management in information system -- 3 Quality management in production control -- 4 Communication support for quality asssurance -- 5 Product based quality management and manufacturing control -- 6 Conclusions -- References -- 6 Best Practice in Shop Floor Schedulin -- 1 Introduction -- 2 The dominance of MRP and MRPII -- 3 Modern scheduling approaches -- 4 Research method -- 5 Assessment of planning and scheduling performance -- 6 Classification of planning and scheduling -- 7 Analysis of results -- 8 Conclusions -- References -- 7 A Stable, Distributed Routing Policy for Flexible Manufacturing Systems -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Lyapunov stability of DEDS -- 3 Part type routing policy -- 4 Simulation example -- 5 Conclusion -- References -- 8 Shop Controllers-Managers for Intelligent Manufacturing -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Efficiency through economy of scope -- 3 Govern-for-flexibility knowledge architecture -- 4 Applications and example development -- 5 Concluding comments -- References -- 9 A CIM Designed According to Ward and Mello -- 1 The Ward and Mellor methodology -- 2 The Ward and Mellor methodology applied to CIM -- 3 Evaluation of the Ward and Mellor methodology -- 4 Conclusions -- References -- 10 Monitoring and Automatic Supervision in Manufacturing Systems -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Classification of disturbances -- 3 Sensors and methods of monitoring -- 4 Methods of influencing manufacturing systems -- 5 Automatic supervisory systems -- 6 Conclusions -- References -- 11 Petri Nets for Designing Manufacturing System -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Petri nets -- 3 Modeling FMS using Petri nets -- 4 Validation of Petri net models -- 5 Coordination control of production systems by mean of Petri nets -- 6 Design, modelling and analysis of a FMS -- 7 Conclusions -- References -- 12 Petri Net-Based Approach to Synthesis of Intelligent Control Systems for DEDS -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Petri net-based modelling of DEDS -- 3 Analysis of the DEDS control possibilities -- 4 Petri nets in the rule-based knowledge representation -- 5 Utilizing the knowledge base in the control synthesis -- 6 Illustrative examples -- 7 Knowledge inference and automatic reasoning -- 8 An illustrative example -- 9 Conclusions -- References -- 13 New Methods and Tools for Commissioning of Manufacturing Lines with Robots -- 1 Introduction -- 2 State-of-the-art in robot planning and future needs -- 3 Methods and tools for commissioning time reduction -- 4 Conclusions -- References -- 14 Balanced Automation -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Difficulties and contributions -- 3 BAS and shop floor -- 4 BAS and scheduling -- 5 BAS and concurrent engineering -- 6 BAS and virtual enterprises -- 7 Conclusions -- References -- 15 Factory Principles Applied to Analytical Chemistry: An Integrated Laboratory Management System -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Business motives -- 3 Business integration -- 4 Laboratory integration -- 5 Anatomy of the ILMS -- 6 The integration process -- 7 The experience -- References -- 16 The Generalized Network Model: Algorithms and Application to Manufacturing Operations -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Network formulation and mathematical problem statement -- 3 Solution algorithms -- 4 Applications -- 5 Genet-optimizer and Genetexp: A new GN-modelling tool -- 6 Conclusions -- References -- Biographies of the Contributors.