By Terri Cochrane

Increased capacity of production Higher quality products Lower operating costs Shorter cycle times Mass customization of products Improved organizational effectiveness Greater agility and efficiency Development of seamless processes

Transmission of business transactions from one company's computer to another company's computer. Transmission is achieved through an electronic communication network that uses translation software to convert transactions from a company's internal format to a standard EDI format. Examples: online banking online retailing electronic funds transfer (payroll checks)

FMS (Flexible Manufacturing Systems) is a manufacturing system in which there is some amount of flexibility that allows the system to react in the case of changes, whether predicted or unpredicted. Incorporates machine flexibility- the ability to produce different product types and change the order on parts Incorporates routing flexibility – the ability to use multiple machines to perform the same function on a part and to make large scale changes in volume and capacity

CAM (Computer-Aided Manufacturing) Commonly refers to the use of numerical control (NC) computer software applications to create detailed instructions (G-code) that drive computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools for manufacturing parts. can maximize utilization of a full range of production equipment can aid in creating, verifying, and optimizing NC programs for optimum machining productivity product lifecycle management MRP (Materials Requirements Planning) A materials requirement planning (MRP) information system is a sales forecast-based system used to schedule raw material deliveries and quantities, given assumptions of machine and labor units required to fulfill a sales forecast. includes inventory control, bill of material processing and elementary schedulingbill of material helps organizations to maintain low inventory levels used to plan manufacturing, purchasing and delivering activities

Attempts to integrate all departments and functions across a company onto a single computer system that can serve all those different departments’ particular needs. ERP takes a customer order and provides a software road map for automating the different steps along the path to fulfilling it. People in different departments all see the same information and can update it. When one department finishes with the order it is automatically routed via the ERP system to the next department. To find out where the order is at any point, you need only log in to the ERP system and track it

Because of the value and investment associated with inventory, companies seek to track the movement of their inventory as closely as possible. The bar code or Universal Product Code (UPC) serves as the most common inventory tracking method. Designed for use in the retail environment, the standard bar code allows retailers to track inventory through point-of-sale (POS) equipment. Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology can scan more than one unit at a time, it does not require line-of-site between tags and readers and most fixed RFID readers do not require human intervention to work. Tag System- At the point-of-sale, the retailer removes the tag. The collected tags get crosschecked against the physical inventory to determine sales quantities.

CAD (Computer Aided Design) Architects, drafters, engineers, and artists use CAD software to create plans and construction drawings. Switch between two- dimensional (2D) and three- dimensional (3D) views. Zoom in and out for close-up and distant views. Rotate images to view them from different perspectives. Change the scale of images: Manipulate the shape of images Technical Data Management Systems (TDMS) Management of technical and engineering drawings and technical archives.engineering drawings record management involving purely technical or techno- commercial or techno-legal information or data Steel Plants (ISP), Automobile factories, Aero-space facilities, Infrastructure companies, City Corporations, Research Organizations