Teaching Computerized Integrated Manufacturing in Engineering Departments

SUMMARY This paper deals with the experience gained by the authors when teaching the basics of computerized integrated manufacturing (CIM) in laboratory classes of the Faculty of Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. The essential aspects of this instruction are presented in terms of the production process of a puzzle as an example of CIM. This process includes the main stages of production in general. The accent is placed on the puzzle's assembly stage as the more time-consuming, less-automated stage in industry (about 50%), which is of greatest interest to the students in terms of the technical pitfalls and brain power required for overcoming them. This paper describes both the design of hardware devices and the software used for programming the equipment.