Global competition is forcing manufacturers continually to look for ways to reduce costs and improve product quality. Productivity enhancement has now become a dire necessity instead of just a passing fancy. Factory automation, considered a way out of present woes, is revolutionizing manufacturing worldwide. More and more manufacturers are considering automating their operations so as to become more productive and competitive on a worldwide basis. This drive to automate production operations is, however, not confined to manufacturing operations (metal cutting and metal processing). Increasingly, we come across industries that have automated their materials handling and product assembly or subassembly operations. While considerable progress has been made towards automating materials handling and manufacturing operations, automating assembly operations has been slow and difficult. One of the major difficulties confronting engineers is the basic design of the product: products are either not designed for automated assembly or are poorly designed.
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