Application of multimedia technology in manufacturing: a review

It is an established fact that the use of computers in design and manufacturing constitutes the most significant opportunity for substantial productivity gain in industry. It has now been widely accepted that the future of manufacturing organizations will be information-oriented knowledge driven and much of their: daily operations will be automated around the global information network that connects everyone together. In the coming age of digital multimedia communication the utilisation of a distributed approach in an enterprise model is considered to bring enormous advantages in design and drafting, developing NC code and machining. The Internet, incorporating computers and multimedia, has provided tremendous potential for remote integration and collaboration in business and manufacturing applications. This paper attempts to provide a review of multimedia and the Internet communication for application in manufacturing environments. Special emphasis is given to distance manufacturing and collaborative work in distributed environment highlighting issues and limitations of existing Internet technology. The possible alternatives for using the Internet in complete product fabrication with or without modern manufacturing facilities are also discussed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.