The evolution and future of manufacturing: A review

Abstract Manufacturing is continuously evolving from concept development to methods and tools available for the production of goods for use or sale. Traditionally, manufacturing refers to an industrial production process through which raw materials are transformed into finished products to be sold in the market. However, these days manufacturing is considered to be an integrated concept at all levels from machines to production systems to an entire business level operation. Although there have been considerable developments in manufacturing technologies and processes, the actual scope and elements of manufacturing systems are complex and not adequately defined. This paper provides a review of both the tangible and intangible elements of manufacturing systems and presents a state-of-the-art survey of published work. It studies the evolution of research in manufacturing starting from past and current trends to future developments. How manufacturing systems have been classified is also presented. Through this extensive survey of the literature, future directions of this changing field are suggested.