What became clear at AMS '87 was that suppliers of manufacturing software are responding to both the changing demands brought about by new manufacturing philosophies, and to users' frustrations with existing products. Developments observed at the show and conference in the following areas demonstrate the maturing of manufacturing software: programming languages; artificial intelligence; industry-specific software solutions; software packages for multi-plant operations; links between MRP II software and other parts of the enterprise; and the integration of manufacturing software with data collection practices.